On the changing landscape of local media

Posted by: Blaine Roderique

After weeks of rumors the Detroit Free Press announced that it would deliver newspapers to homes only Thursday, Friday and Sunday. All of its other newsroom resources would be aimed at developing the paper’s online presence.

The Freep isn’t the first to do this. A few months ago management at The Christian Science Monitor decided to stop weekday publishing and move to a combination of a weekend magazine and website.

Also last week according to a Marketwatch story CBS CEO Les Moonves said:

The executive also said that in 10 years, CBS may no longer have traditional affiliated TV stations, but could offer its feed straight to cable and satellite operators. For now, however, the network has contracts with local stations that are binding for several years.

So, what’s happening to the market for news and information? It’s certainly not slowing but it’s all moving to the web. We’re going to have to refocus on strategies that work in a multimedia, multi-disciplined world. Is it social media? Mobile content distribution? Search engine optimization?

It’s not so much what we do (or not) but how to combine the different tactics available to create an effective digital marketing mix.

Flexibility is going to continue to the be the key in a disrupted media landscape.

 

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