I think it’s important to differentiate between newspapers and print publications ability to mak e a profit, and being a good venue for PR. Those are two different concepts, and one does not have an impact on the other. On the surface, your argument is logical, because if there are fewer print publications, then there are fewer outlets for PR. But, we need to take into account the way the Internet uses the mainstream medium. A new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism uncovered what I had already suspected. Specifically, the study stated that most of the articles people read online contain no real reporting. Translated, that means it’s been copied and pasted from a legitimate news source’s feed. The study tracked news in Baltimore, Maryland for a week, and examined both print newspapers and online outlets, and discovered that 8 out of the 10 articles published online about a topic in the news were simply repackaged from the newspaper’s story. We see it all the time. My Senior Campaign Strategist, also a former newspaperman like yourself, reads two newspapers every day as well as the online feeds throughout the day. Invariably, he sees the results from that study on a daily basis. So, if a print newspaper repurposes its content online, it’s likely that their story will be repackaged and repeated across a wide variety of Web sites once it hits. For the marketer, the sad story of plummeting newspaper circulation and profits – while tragic – should not have an impact on their campaign strategy. Beat reporters from major news outlets STILL break stories, and their papers and magazines will run them and repurpose them online. The rest of the bloggers and online news sites will then either reference, repackage or flat out republish those stories, increasing circulation of the story to many dozens of times the reach of the original newspaper that ran it. Does this hurt the newspaper business? Absolutely. Does it madden me? Yes. But as a caretaker of the best interests of my clients, it is not in my best interest to challenge it – that’s for the newspapers’ attorneys to do. Rather, as long as these conditions exist, it is in my best interest to take advantage of the practice for the benefit of my clients.

Nice article. Guess it’s always the same stuff with the media. How many predicted Yahoo or Amazon wouldn’t survive; or the browser war between Explorer and Netscape, and there you have it back again.

Not one newspaper or magazine gained circulation in 2009. In fact, the best of any of them did was stay even. Most got smaller, which led to layoffs and a shrinking newshole. As a Harvard Business School study indicated, newspapers as a product have diminished to the point where consumers don’t see a reason to buy them.

Magazines are dying right and left. Editor and Publisher – the bible of the newspaper industry for over a century – just closed. The last numbers I saw were 70 magazines closed in 2009. How many opened?

The most desirable demographic – 18- to -35-year-olds simply do not read printed material like other generations. They are much more Internet-oriented.

Yes, television viewership is doing well. But not advertising viewership. DVRs are killing that medium, Here’s a little exercise you can do. As some friends to name their favorite commercial. About half won’t have one. Another quarter will remember the commercial, but not the product. And about the last quarter will like the commercial, but wouldn’t buy the product based on that commercial.

I want to see some hard numbers for your statement that traditional is a viable medium for marketing.