Should Traditional Media Fear Its Social Sibling?
DH | Feb 28, 2009 | Comments 8
This is a bad time for mainstream newspapers. Bankruptcies, and just recently, the death of The Rocky Mountain News after 150 years. Blogger and online activist Danny Brown (right, and @dannybrown on Twitter) is someone whose opinion I follow and respect. I turned to Danny for his thoughts on where he thinks the media is all headed:
Traditional media is dying. Print media is on its last legs. Newspapers have no new audience. Journalists are a dying breed. No-one watches television anymore. Social media is the new court artisan.
Or so the story goes. But is it really true?
Listening to some of the voices online at the minute, it’d certainly seem that way. Yet history doesn’t bear these opinions out.
- TV would kill radio.
- DVD’s would kill movie ticket sales.
- CD’s would kill vinyl.
- The Internet would kill traditional media.
- Music downloads would kill traditional retailers.
Maybe I’m looking at the wrong picture, but I still see all of the things that are meant to be dead by now. If anything, many of the doomed mediums are thriving and actually performing better than their replacements.
So what does this mean for traditional media and its “death by social media” tag?
Convergence and Collaboration.
Instead of traditional media dying and making way for the new kid on the block, how about simply making room?
There’s a lot of negativity from both sides toward each other. Many journalists, reporters, news anchors, etc, don’t see the value or benefit of social media. Additionally, may social media practitioners ignore the more traditional outlets, citing them as irrelevant and out-of-date.
Neither of these views help when it comes to maintaining what’s really important – access to the most relevant information from the most reliable sources.
Instead of decrying each other’s medium, collaborate. Open up to the experience of each other.
Traditional advertisers should look at the results a social media advertising strategy can offer.
Newspapers can integrate better online newsrooms and citizen journalism to complement what their experienced journalists are doing.
Social media-based companies/agencies should look at how they can integrate traditional media into their strategies. Online communities are great; how much more reach would you have with local newspapers and TV stations?
These are just some ideas – they’re not perfect, nor are they meant to be. I don’t have journalistic experience, nor am I an advertising expert. All I’m offering are suggestions.
But wouldn’t it make more sense to help and work with each other as opposed to canceling each other out?
Danny Brown owns a boutique agency combining traditional PR and marketing with social media. He provides consultancy services to clients in both the consumer and commercial markets,
from small start-ups to Fortune 500 businesses.
He is also founder of the 12for12k Challenge, a unique charity project using social media to change the lives of millions in 2009.
Filed Under: Featured • Guest Blogger
The best results always come from when new technologies are incorporated into proven methods. I think the reason you are seeing the newspaper and music industries hurting like this has been their reluctance to embrace the direction that things were heading. They felt that if they held firm on the old ways that newer fads would just fade away. Denial put those businesses at risk, not social media…
We never really leave high school, do we? We still have our cliques and we still talk sh*t about everyone. But you’re right: why can’t we all just get along?
Not for the sake of just getting along. Rather, for the sake of improving communication for everyone. For the sake of making the spread of knowledge easier for everyone. For the sake of enabling media to better serve consumers.
Blogs exist in a bubble. Twitter exists in a (growing) bubble. Facebook exists in a (larger than Twitter’s) bubble. To those outside the bubble, televisions, radios, and (to a less and less extent) newspapers still rule.
I agree with your suggestions. Those in the bubbles should work with those outside the bubbles and see what good we can do for all parties involved.
I just posted a lengthy blog post in response to this article.
The part I didn’t say, though, is that I agree that the Internet is all about collaboration. What needs to be happening now is a blending of the two. Bring the ads and the good journalists to the web. Realize that this is the present, not just the future, and make it work.
Trying to force the Internet into the Hearst Kindle-device type of thing is definitely going at it the wrong way.
What is missing right now, that people are clamouring for, is a REAL newspaper online. A real radio station online. A real TV network online. Bring it. That’s what we want. Make it viable.
Is that so hard?
–Michelle Belaskie
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You raised some points on your blog that I’d love to respond to, Michelle. Unfortunately, you don’t allow comments.
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