Newspapers: That Giant Sucking Sound

We are witnessing , before our very eyes, the utter collapse of the giant American newspaper.

I never thought its demise would be this fast, or so deep. The layoffs, the incredibly fast drops in circulation – 6% in just six months. It’s unbelievable.

The newspaper business model is dead, but journalism is not. Really – we need good journalists more than we ever did.

And traditional media isn’t dead yet.

I am currently reading Paul Gillin’s new book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing. Early (on page 24), he reminds us that social media is not well suited to several important marketing projects:

• Branding
• Channel relations
• Direct marketing
• Business to business
• Targeting audiences over age 50
• High ticket items

Sure, social media could help here. Gillin’s not arguing that social media is totally ineffective for these projects. He says social media is currently insufficient to get the whole job done.

So in the middle of this newspaper Armageddon, let’s not get carried away with the “social media is everything” thing. It’s not. Traditional media still has a job to do, even if part of its role now is to feed the insatiable social media beast.