The Only Constant Is Change

Blogging is an excellent way to offer opinions, give advice, and learn from those who comment. I have an interest in crisis communications and strategic communications, probably resulting from my work in the cheerleading industry. I develop training manuals and facilitate instruction for cheer coaches in safety and risk management. I also live in a town that was devastated by a tornado a few years ago. I understand the importance of being prepared for a crisis and the importance of preparing for handling the aftermath of a crisis—whether related to weather or injuries or organizational mishaps.

This blog will peruse areas in strategic communications, emerging media, and related topics of communication. I plan to post weekly and will meander through different topics as they deal with communication. I encourage readers to post your thoughts in a polite manner—whether you agree or object!

This week I have read a variety of articles dealing with social media and the print media. Much has been written lately about the demise of print newspapers. Newspapers have a long and meaningful history. My generation can remember headlines whose words changed our lives--KENNEDY IS KILLED BY SNIPER AS HE RIDES IN CAR IN DALLAS, Saigon Surrenders To Reds, MARTIN LUTHER KING IS SLAIN IN MEMPHIS and Terror Hits Pentagon, World Trade Center. Newspapers give us a one-stop-shop for coupons, ads from our favorite grocery stores and clothing stores, editorials, and articles covering local, national, and international news. There was a time we believed what we read in the newspaper.

I remember my dad reading the morning and evening papers. I was a fan of print newspapers until a few years ago. I think the newsprint on my hands and stacks of papers had something to do with my dropping the paper subscriptions, but accessing newspapers online has much more to do with my leaving the printed newspaper. I am now a headline scanner--I look through the headlines for the news. If a headline grabs my attention, I'll read the article. I don't need the entire paper. No more stacks, no more ink on my fingers. Apparently I am not the only person to gravitate to digital papers.

 Will Bunch, a blogger for philly.com, discusses the  "de-newspaperization of America." The number of newspaper readers is decreasing daily. This is occurring across the country--not just in the big cities. Many blame the digital age and the free access of online news.A Pew study reported that in their survey, half of Americans get their news digitally. The number of people who had read a newspaper the day before had dropped by half since 2000. With the options available to us today, it is not surprising to see these numbers. What was surprising to me was that, according to this same study, more people are relying on social media as their supplier of news. What? Who finds news in social media? Maybe my definition of news is difference from others, but as I reviewed my Facebook page this morning, I saw little that qualified as news. I found entertainment, updates from friends, and those useless requests for games, but no news! It is not surprising that young people are not consumer of traditional news; they like the latest updates about famous people and sports but not politics and other traditional news items.

Some cite the popularity of tablets and smart phones as contributing to the demise of newspapers, and this makes sense when looking at the increased sales of tablets and phones. I own two android tablets (one is strictly for grandchildren use!) and an android smart phone. I find the ease of use and convenience contributing to my turning to digital means of finding the latest news. As I said, I have become a headline scanner and several apps make it easy for me to find only the articles that interest me. Flipboard allows me to personalize which newspapers and magazines I want to include in my "library" of choices. Pulse is another app that lets me choose which blogs, newspapers, magazines, and social networks I want in one place. Both of these apps are free. I can see how difficult it is to compete against digital programs that are free and provide the same service (or better) than a print newspaper or print magazine.

Print newspapers and print magazines are not the only industries to see a downward slide--the book publishing industry is impacted by digital innovations. Joseph Esposito's blog, An Industry Pining for Bookstores, talks about the disappearance of the local bookstore and that impact on publishers. I, too, love bookstores. Nothing is better that walking through Barnes & Noble touching the books and picking one up to scan through. Their graphic displays and huge assortments of all types of books are appealing, but I will admit I have moved to eBooks--almost totally for my reading. Again, the convenience of having all my books on a digital device is appealing--no more stacks of books gathering dust. Using my tablet I can read anywhere--waiting in a doctor's office, standing in line at the back, or flying to a conference.  Unfortunately for publishers and bookstores, the Kindle and the Nook have risen in popularity. Esposito believes that Amazon's growing dominance in eBooks and e Readers is a worry for every publisher. I don't need a physical book store now; I simply go online, choose a book, pay, and download. What could be easier? It appears that Esposito foresees the demise of bookstores and what that may mean for book sellers.

What the newspaper industry, the magazine industry, and the book publishing industry are experiencing is a changing world and changing patterns of reading. Yes, the digital age is a major factor in this change; however, many believe it is a reluctance to change that has been the driver. Publishing has finally accepted they are in a changing world. Those who adapt to change now and plan for change as technology advances will see a brighter future. Change is constant; those who prepare for it and plan for it will be the winners.   

SIGN SIGN EVERYWHERE A SIGN

Sign Sign everywhere a sign

Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind

Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign

This song by the 5 Man Electric Band relays what many of us think about the proliferation of advertising. Advertising is everywhere—signs on the fence at baseball fields, billboards dotting the highways, buses, race cars and pop-up advertising on websites. Advertising extends to branding college bowl games with the Capital One Bowl (formerly the Tangerine Bowl and the Florida Citrus Bowl), the Chick-fil-A Bowl (formerly the Peach Bowl), the Allstate Sugar Bowl (formerly Sugar Bowl which is played in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome). You can see the clever advertising angles here. What else is fair game for an advertising medium? Will we one day brand hurricanes, stars in the sky, newly found planets, etc.? 

In the current digital age, advertising has taken on new forms and means of reaching an audience, even a specific segment of an audience. Search advertising and digital display advertising are the top two forms of digital advertising, according to The State of the News Media 2013. This report predicts that by 2016, digital display advertising will be the top form of digital advertising. No surprise as to which search company leads in digital advertising—Google. Tibken, a writer for CNET News, reports that in the first half of 2012, Google made more money than all U.S. print media combined—at least $20.8 billion. To be fair, Google is a world-wide entity, but these numbers surely stand out as a testament to the popularity of digital advertising. An eMarketer report said that digital global advertising spending as a whole topped $100 billion in 2012 and predicts the next few years will see much growth.

From my readings and research I have learned that about 40% to 50% of adults own a smart phone. Those of us who do are familiar with some form digital advertising through the phone.  My WSFA weather app has banner advertising at the top that changes every time I open the app. My AP mobile app has banner advertising at the bottom. As noisome as these may be, we learn to live with them; they are part of the digital landscape. Smart phones have given advertisers a new frontier—location-based advertising. Our phones are mobile; they go with us from location to location. Why not have advertising that also goes from location to location—ads change to fit our surroundings. Adfonic’s Geo-location White Paper uses the terms geo-targeting, meaning a “geographically recognised region, such as a State or city” and ringfencing which is the ability to direct ads bases on a specific location such as retail outlet or hotel chain.  Many of us have used our phone’s navigation apps. We know we must turn on the GPS signal of our phone in order for the navigation app to locate the phone and direct us to our destination. On a recent trip to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, I found location-based ads appeared on several of my phone’s apps along with coupons for tourist attractions in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Groupon, LivingSocial, and many other apps direct specials and coupons to our phones directed by our location.

Lauren Hockenson article, “Bright Lights, Big City,” has an overview of the latest in digital display options.  One of the coolest digital displays available are the displays that resemble a hologram—a virtual assistant display. Several of these are already in use at airports in Washington, D. C., Dubai, and Edinburgh. Tensator’s Virtual Assistants can be located in airports to assist passengers, retail locations to build sales, or anywhere to assist with information, guidance or purchase ideas. They speak any language, and motion sensors can be integrated so that the assistants are not continually repeating a message. Tensator says their Virtual Assistant is “completely customizable.” This brings audience entertainment as well as information--increasing sales and foot traffic. Casio has a Virtual Presenter that is described as an interactive display that is also “completely customizable.” Casio’s Virtual Presenter will run for almost ten years without taking a break! Wow! The uses for these virtual assistants seem unlimited.  

 Another type of digital display is one found on street corners—an intelligent lamppost. The developer of the lamppost, Ron Harwood, worked at Disney before developing his intelligent lamppost. Intellistreets is a lamppost with built-in signage and has the capability to alert passersby to possible safety concerns or directions. The lamppost has a camera and a microphone to sense problems in the area. The lamppost can play music, announcements, count pedestrian traffic, and, yes, it offers street lighting. Cities can install these not only to assist citizens, but also to sell advertising. There is some controversy about these being a "Big Brother" tool, but Howard says, "If you look at all the city services that could be accomplished wirelessly and all the budgets that are being accomplished to do these things, including gunshot detection and traffic cameras, we are layering costs that Intellistreets solves with one unit." These innovations take digital displays to new hieghts, and they offer an amazing technology.

I don’t know that anyone can predict where this technology will go in the next few years, but it is clear that our world has embraced digital technology and digital advertising. Remember our first mobile phones—those huge bag phones we lugged around? We thought those were the best invention! Now we use our smart phones as our mobile laptop computer. Personally, I can’t wait to see what’s next in the digital world!