Media - Mass = Journalism 2.0

The Washington Post, perhaps looking in the mirror, chronicles the sweeping changes in journalism with an article titled As the Internet Grows Up, the News Industry Is Forever Changed. It's a must read for every PR professional. If you're doing your job the same way you did five years ago, look out. The floor you built your career on is shifting because the audiences are fragmenting into tiny chunks. Some highlights...

* The Internet has largely replaced radio and television for breaking news. Blogs are is a contributing factor, as is RSS, the Post says

* Daily newspapers lost 1.2 million readers in the six months that ended in March, down to 45.5 million. Online newspaper readership, however, grew to 56 million

* Radio is growing at an anemic 2.3 percent annually

* Ad pages at the newsweeklies are flat - and that's in a good advertising economy!

* Advertising is by far the online media's sole primary revenue generator

Last but not least, this is the kicker: "The news media's advantage in advertising is that it's a mass medium, but online users may gravitate to online-only sites for autos, real estate or jobs."

I would add in that media is no longer a numbers game. This article ties together what many of us have been talking about for years. There's a radical shift taking place in how people get their information. It's no longer a numbers game and this is going to radically transform how we measure PR and marketing.

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