It was bound to happen. At some point, we all knew that there was going to be a tipping point of how much money Americans would be willing to spend on media. With Americans spending hundreds of dollars monthly on paid media forms: Internet access, cable/satellite TV, cell phone service, wireless/mobile internet, satellite radio, magazine subscriptions, online content subscriptions, DVRs, etc. Americans are now spending over 15 hours a day with media. At some point people were just going to run out of time/money to spend on more media options. Either they would quit adopting technologies, or, they would have to weed out old forms of media.
Mariane Matera reached her tipping point in a "column" this week. http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2006/10/12/ESSAY-Matera%20paper%200541.doc.aspx
Because she found herself spending less and less time with newspaper (a growing trend nationally) she finally took the money and the time and decided to completely dedicate these resources elsewhere. I did the same thing several months ago and signed up for the RSS feed for what pieces of the local newspaper I actually tried to make time for.
I think it's becoming increasing evident that the future of traditional newspaper is very bleak...but it's demise is very practical from a consumer's standpoint. There is only so much time/money that people have to spend on media. As we continue to add new technology, other media may have to go. Keeping up with the trends of how people are moving is imperative to the performance of our clients and our brands. If the last two years have told us nothing, it is that these changes can happen very quickly -- and will continue to change exponentially faster.
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