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The Red Cross has embraced social media for disaster communications – and it’s a case study filled with ideas for other organizations. In a Ragan Communications story, a Red Cross communications director describes the progression. Following Hurricane Katrina, in which the local chapter was overwhelmed with calls and questions, the Red Cross developed a news portal for media, victims, employees and other audiences.
The circulation figures for many of the country’s biggest traditional newspapers have declined sharply in the last year (see Media Shifts Continue). Most pundits blame competition from the Internet for the decline in newspaper subscriptions. So it is interesting to see that Joel Kramer, the former publisher of the Minnesota Star Tribune, has now started a new digital distribution newspaper called the MinnPost.com. Kramer exited the Star Tribune when it was bought by McClatchy several years ago.
As if to underscore yesterday’s post about the new IBM report—The End Of Advertising As We Know —there were two stories in the trade press today that would indicate the authors of the report are on to something.
The first story is on Media Daily and it is a message from Nick Brien, the CEO of Universal McCann Worldwide. The title pretty much says it all: Marketers Threaten To Put Majority Of Budget Online (free registration may be required). Brien says what is driving marketers online is “discontent due to increasing viewer fragmentation, disruptive technologies, and the resulting decrease in ROI” for traditional media.
The other story title is self-explanatory as well: Murdoch Says Huge TV Profits Are History.
There have been a number of news stories in the last couple days that highlight the continuing shift in media consumption in the United States. As media habits change, so do preferences for advertising budget placement.
On the plus side, Internet advertising is expected to double in the next four years according to eMarketer (Online Advertising on a Rocket Ride). The report notes during the last year about 70 percent of the country’s top 100 advertisers decreased spending in traditional media and increased spending for Internet advertising. It appears this trend will continue.
Monday, NBC Universal and News Corp launched a beta version of Hulu, characterized by some news stories as big media’s attempt to wrest control of online video away from YouTube, Brightcove, Revver, Revision3 and what seems like a bazillion other online video start-ups. They are doing this by offering premium content, or to use traditional media’s terminology, “premium programming” to an online audience that wants TV delivered via the Web in a less programmed structure. In other words, Hulu presents people with the opportunity to time-shift and place-shift their viewing options.
Both News Corp and NBC Universal built their empires on programming the consumer was willing to pay for (via advertising). It appears this is an attempt to protect what has been a wonderfully profitable TV business model as traditional programming migrates to the “Wild West” Web environment.