Print and Online Media can Work Together for Advertisers
Date:
13 Jan 2011 It's easy to believe that traditional media, especially print, is dying. After all, the tale of traditional media over past five years has been one of red ink, retrenchments and publication closures. The pressure shows no sign of letting up.
A shaky world economy and the rapid growth of online media are proving to be a deadly mix for most traditional media houses that have to carry the high overheads associated with print publications. And traditional media houses are not yet earning enough money from their online properties to make up for lost print revenues. Sure, online ad spending is on the rise, but it isn't growing fast enough to make falling print advertising revenues and a sharp drop in subscription and retail sales of print publications.
Things are getting harder, rather than easier, for print publications. They're not only losing print subscribers to online channels, but are also losing online readers to RSS feeds, social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, aggregators like Google News, and social bookmarking sites like Digg.
The publications that were once so powerful in the offline world are watching their brands become eroded as consumers look for their news through social media and aggregation sites rather than at publications' online portals. They can't keep up with the new pace of the news business in a world where someone will break a big new story on a blog or on Twitter before they have a chance to even write a story. Print publishers are dying...or are they?
Change not death
In reality, there will still be a strong role for traditional media to play as a trusted source of validation and verification for big news stories as well as offering up proprietary research and opinion.
When you hear a rumour on Twitter, inevitably you will look to one of the many editors and journalists that use the service to confirm it before you will believe it. And bloggers and tweeters also don't have the resources to run with a developing story once it has been broken - that takes time, money and skills that not every amateur reporter has at his or her disposal.
Print might be on its way out - or not - but there is still a place for traditional media organisations if they are able to reinvent themselves for a new, online and real-time world. The truth is that the online and offline channels are part of an interconnected media experience from the consumer's point of view.
People talk on their cell phones while they surf the web. They watch a sports broadcast in a window on their PC screens while they do their online banking. They see an ad in the newspaper and then Google the company to find out more about the product. Publishers present across a mix of channels can build powerful content and advertising models in the future.
In South Africa, this balance is still skewed towards offline media - print, and especially radio and television. Slow broadband penetration has given traditional media some breathing space here, but that won't last forever. For South African media aimed at a broader market, it is the mobile Internet and mobile phones that will become the most important digital channel. We have more than a 100% cellular penetration in the country and a growing population of Internet-ready smartphones. It's a great opportunity for
publishers and advertisers alike.
Ultimately, that mix of media and channels in the market means that marketers and advertisers need to find a balance between the options we have and manage them in a holistic manner. Some are better for reaching certain audiences than others; some work better for certain marketing outcomes than others.
Our big challenge for the years ahead in this complex and fragmented media landscape is to understand how we can use all the media at our disposal to maximise revenues as well as value for the customer.
