Newsflash: online marketing is cheaper and more effective than print marketing. Print and TV are struggling to compete with the ease of online marketing (duh). Online marketing is more easily trackable (duh). Online marketing is the wave of the future.
But how long are we going to hang onto our print and TV budgets? When it's cheaper and more effective to market through websites, at what point are we going to pull the plug on struggling newspapers? Or will newspapers become more and more commercial in an effort to survive? I have to admit, there's something charming about carrying a newspaper under the crook of one's arm with a latte in the other hand. But environmental concerns may outweigh the that image's endurance. Everyone knows newspapers are going under, according to the NYT now no one even wants to buy the Chicago Sun-Times. Ouch.
NYT also reports that despite election excitement, no one's watching TV for coverage. I know I can count myself in the number not watching TV. Last year my housemates and I bought a cable package, and when we asked our upstairs neighbors to split it with us they declined. All they watched was the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, both of which are streaming online. This year we, too opted out of cable. We get TV on DVD through Netflix, and we watch 30 Rock and the Office online. I'm not saying that we're starting a social revolution, but it does make me wonder if TV will ever be semi-obsolete.
I remember when my family first got AOL, and I went onto the Nickelodeon website. I spent about 30 minutes downloading pictures of the Rugrats; it was awesome. It's so strange to think about how fast the internet has become what it is. When I think about it I feel like I'm in a sci-fi movie. Weird.
