Bubble wrap has more than 500 different Facebook groups. If that doesn’t tell you something about the range of today’s social media, then what more do you need? The question more intriguing is: what role will Twitter, My Space, Facebook, Yelf, Youtube, Foursquare, etc. play in how we used to view paper and ink publishing?
Magazines, newspapers, books… I remember them. Actually, they still exist, but for many of the nation’s most desired demographics, “Huh?” So how do these one-time mainstream media darlings evolve, and where do they meet today’s generation at the social media intersection? Here are the facts as we know them: Young adults (ages 8-18) now average seven and one-half hours a day “data-involved” (Internet, texting, listening to MP3 players, gaming, watching TV). That’s really 11 hours if you count multi-tasking. Most do not read for pleasure, will never subscribe to a newspaper, and have shortened attention spans. (Hey, that’s what the research says.) Yet they drive an enormous percentage of the digital economy (2010 will be the year when digital musical sales will surpass physical sales in revenue.) Subsequent generations will follow in this track, albeit altered in some yet-to-be determined way by its natural evolution. And it will happen fast, as everything digital does, and as its drivers demand–instant gratification.
So: We still have a shrinking audience of “old media” affectionados, and there is a belief by some (older) sages that we always will have, perhaps engaging, at some point, today’s generations as they age. But this can only happen if that “old-fashioned” media heartily adapts. It is trying; it just can’t sustain the pace. But the efforts are being made. Esquire, a “young-cultured” man’s magazine, published the first of its kind Augmented Reality Issue in December. With a simple application download, a reader can scan a digitally recognized symbol on his computer and be lead to a fully interactive expansion of the story, item or feature (including advertising). This bold (for a paper publisher) experiment was a step. Almost all magazines, newspapers and TV stations have web presence and blog to expand into the newer world. Survivors will have to become bolder and make Director of Social Media a serious masthead title.
The bottom line: Money. If you can’t attract the new readers, the advertisers won’t pay for the stodgy… and you, Mr. Publisher, will become either a newsletter for your core or extinct. End of story.
Jerry Constantino, Feb. 2, 2010
Jerry Constantino was President and Publisher of PJS Publications, a group of 20 special interest magazines owned by VS&A Venture Capital and later, Primedia. He now writes fiction and blogs irrelevantly at itsnutsoutthere.blogspot.com.
Note: Post not sponsored.
