Ink may not be dead. But it's starting to smell a bit.
It's interesting to get all of the varous points of view on print, and this is an interesting post.
Newspapers- I used to buy and read several per day.
Even when I was a poor college student, I made sure to catch up on the latest news- dropping coins into the corner newsbox day in, day out.
This habit began when I was a paper boy. I read the paper and then I delivered them. It felt cool being the first guy in the neighborhood to have the freshest news.
I have to admit though; I rarely buy the paper anymore.
No longer do I have to wash my hands (ink smudge, the struggle is real) before leaving for work.
I read my words off the screen these days.
I had held out hope that newspapers had a future back when Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post.
I held some optimism when Warren Buffet proclaimed a few years ago that newspapers would remain viable for a long time. He owns a few papers. He's a smart guy. He must know something.
Today's USA Today tempers my enthusiasm. Warren Buffet declared, "We haven't cracked the code yet... There's no indication that anyone besides the national papers has found a way." (USA Today, May 26, 2016, Section B1)
When two business moguls make a bet and have lackluster results it's hard to conclude that newspapers are going to find a robust uptick.
So what does this mean for us?
We're all in this together. There was a time when one could choose a limited number of ways to reach readers. Some agents found success by having a newspaper presence. Certain builders built an empire with their weekend full page adds.
Those days are largely behind us.
Now we're inundated by options. Now we tweet; we post on blogs; we create email campaigns or newsletters. Some of us are still sending postcards or delivering flyers. We populate our webpages with lots of bling and extensions. We're sponsoring sports teams, buying signs and business cards and slapping our logos and phone numbers on a zillion little promotional items.
Never before have we had more ways to spend time or money to get the word out...
... to get our name in front of more people.
Here's where you come in.
- What are you doing these days to move the influence needle? -
Enquiring minds want to know.
Comments(8)