When times are good, advertisers complain about the decline in response rates for traditional media but they continue to buy ads, first, because they always have and second, because their competition still is.
The problem for old media is that the amount the advertisers are spending has steadily declined as they try out new avenues such as Google, Internet advertising, social media, online PR and others. Although media executives were denying it for years the rash of newspaper closures in the States and the parlous situation of our own Australian media empires is only the tip of the ice berg.
Old Media Failed to Adapt
Traditional media has been so busy fighting change that as a consequence it has failed to look for ways to adopt, adapt and integrate new media into its world. To glimpse how they could have done so just visit the ABC to see how they have integrated the Internet, social media and their TV and radio arms into one cohesive and seamless platform.
Another organisation that has totally embraced new media and integrated it into its way of life rather than trying to fend it off is the BBC. How is it that these two octogenarians hampered by government ownership, lack of funds and bureaucracy have attracted the ire of the traditional media who complain loudly about their “unfair advantage”.
The old media protest that government ownership gives them an advantage but we Australians know how hard the ABC has fought to get its 8 cents a day and it is never certain that it will keep it. The ABC lives with uncertainty, cuts in funding are often threatened and sometimes implemented.
New Media is More Than Starting a Twitter Page – it’s a Way of Life
No, the unfair advantage these two organisations have comes from their willingness to embrace change which is not easy in their environment no matter what their competitors say. Both the ABC and the BBC encourage staff to experiment and to think outside the box. They are results orientated but not shackled to the next quarterly financial report. In other words they take a long term view.
The result is that they are big in podcasting and among the most downloaded podcasts on iTunes, they have many Twitter and Facebook accounts, they replay TV shows on the web and create original content including games, video, music, pictures, articles and much more and they are both growing while traditional media is shrinking.
eSTV is New Media in Action
At eSTV we admire these two old timers who have so successfully reinvented themselves. We admire their spirit of adventure, their forward thinking creativity and their hutspa (CHUTZPAH which means boldness of action).
In the same vein, we at eSTV are continually striving to develop our new media platform to provide a better service to our readers and sponsors. We understand the readers’ distaste for intrusive advertising which they ignore when possible and also the need for organisations to provide quality information about their products or services.
We have long felt that advertising per se is old hat. It still has its uses but they are less than those for which it is currently used.
While advertising is over used, providing quality information is similarly under utilised. From inception our aim has been to help advertisers to hone their skills at providing the information people need to make their future buying decisions. We help them by working with them to create interesting and informative promotions in a variety of formats that people can use to assess their needs.
An introduction to many small businesses using video stories to introduce the reader to the business in a way that they rarely get an opportunity to do.
We have produced a range of travelogues about Sydney that have been hugely popular with our overseas and interstate readers.
And Now we are about to change the way business does business. Best Deals Australia shopping mall is the latest addition to our magazine and I look forward to telling you more about it as we run up to the launch.
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