The Transition

This is the era of new media, i.e. internet and websites. Over the last decade, the traditional media industry has shifted from conventional print media to the new media. Of course, this shift is slow and going steady. This was a step-by-step process of transition from traditional (print) advertising to online (also known as digital) marketing. This discussion also emphasizes on the importance of this evolutionary change.

The world as we know it is going through a major transition from printing everything to digital (paperless) technologies. There are several reasons for this change from print to pixel.

First is the green reason. It involves using less paper, having less waste and conserving resources. In fact, some businesses have a green or paperless policy. They frown on the use of paper and go to great lengths to minimize its use altogether.

Second is technology. The computer and the Internet have begun to make this possibility into a reality. But this transition is not seamless. One area where this is a road filled with uncertainties is in the marketing & advertising industry.

A significant 55% of marketers either have no plans to use or will decrease their use of print ads. B2C (15%) were more likely to reduce their use of print advertising compared to B2C (9%).

(Ref: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-industry-report-2011/).

The process of thinking is very different for those of us born before desktops, laptops, iPhones, iPads and iPods. Those comfortable with the old media think on paper. Their reality is based on doing and learning things by reading from and writing on paper not from a computer screen, keypad and mouse (or touch pad). It takes a focused and concerted effort to change one’s thought processing beyond 'recycling one's garbage'.

Apart from this, there are some genuine and ‘user-friendly’ reasons for the transition of print media to digital media. A recent study shows that as newspaper circulation continues to fall, so do newspaper revenues. All told, losses amount to 27.2% or ad revenue lost year-over-year between 2008 and 2009. More and more consumers are using the web to stay updated about current events.

The center of gravity of traditional media is slowly shifting. That, of course, assumes a very liberal definition of that term - one that includes not only internet news sites and weblogs, but the more interactive technologies developing and arising from the more static structure we've come to associate with online information retrieval. There is an unspoken assumption among the darlings of traditional print media: those who take advantage of the democratization of expression and communication that the internet has afforded aren't true writers or broadcasters - they're merely hobbyists. The attitude is tacit and lurks just below the surface, but it's nevertheless omnipresent. However, the reality is that there has been a giant sleeping among the ever shrinking and more rapidly scurrying Lilliputians of the newspaper, magazine, and perhaps even network television industries.

Increase in Online Advertising

Slightly less than half (46%) marketers plan on increasing their online advertising efforts. Large businesses (1000 or more employees) were most likely to increase online advertising (53%). B2C companies were more likely (50%) than B2B (42%) to increase their use of online ads.

(Ref: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-industry-report-2011/).

That giant, the Internet, is gaining consciousness, strength, and soon a formidable sense of coordination and power otherwise known as Web 2.0, the likes of which the ropes of mass media will eventually fail to monopolize and subdue. Showing an especially intriguing skepticism for the decentralization of knowledge that information technology has afforded the rest of us is traditional media.

Changing Lifestyles

Most of us lead lives that are incredibly busy and we have very little time to spend sitting down to read a newspaper any more. Our work hours are spent glued to a computer completing tasks and even commutes and breaks have now been filled with smart phones like iPhones and Blackberries that mean we are always connected to the office. The couple of hours that we do have off in the evening are spent looking after children, washing clothes, socializing and doing all the other menial jobs that require our attention. As our lives have become busier we have been forced to digest our news in smaller bite sized pieces mostly online leaving little time to sit down with the newspaper.

Technology

This is the obvious one and the main contributing factor to less and less newspapers and magazines being consumed and combined with the reason above is the main factor in circulations being slashed in recent years. Since the introduction of broadband, smart phones and news content on demand our appetite for newspapers has shrunk dramatically. The smart newspapers are online and provide better content than they do offline supplementing it with things like online video and other rich media content that would be impossible in the offline world. Too many articles end up being used as fish and chips wrapping instead of being online forever and generating cash from ads in the long term while remaining searchable content.

Better Advertising Elsewhere

It’s not just that other platforms have emerged to attract the eyeballs of consumers but better advertising has also emerged on these platforms to help engage consumers in a way that newspapers and magazines never could have. As consumers have been bombarded with advertising we have become more attuned at filtering it out ourselves so half page spreads in newspapers are not what they used to be and just can’t compete with the ROI on more innovative and engaging forms of advertising that are being developed online at the moment.

Other forms of marketing:

(Ref: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-industry-report-2011/).