Yeah, we know. But now what?

In keeping with the tradition of the “Did you know” series, the latest clip from shift happens hammers the social media convergence concept with poignancy, astute statistics, and a powerhouse of source credentials solid enough to make any print media titan fire up that ol’ trusty netscape browser for a quick trip to idiaper.com.

The clip cites that newspaper circulation is down “7 million over the last 25 years,” while “unique readers of online newspapers are up 30 million” within the last five years.  That’s not terribly surprising if you look at the demand, trends, and visitor profiles for major print news publications.  And honestly…when was the last time you paid money for a print newspaper? And furthermore…why would you?

Media convergence is one element to consider in the grander scheme of the advertising industry…but what’s even more important is the reality of consumer attitude towards advertising. Let us not forget that according to Did you know 4.0 – “47% of television broadcast viewers say they’d pay for ad-less programming.”

That’s a big problem…considering television was invented to sell ads.

As Seth Godin explains; television, radio, and newspapers were invented, principally, to sell ads to the American consumer. Could it be that advertising is moving towards a saturation point? Are we headed for some form of tortuous Tom Cruise-esque immersive advertising version of society where privacy and our media demands are completely and totally superseded by the advertising industry’s prerogative to beat consumers over the heads with advertising until they break down and start buying indiscriminately?

That doesn’t sound practical at all now does it?

So what’s a modern day marketer to do? I mean, there’s always the opportunity to optimize the purchase path for your products/services online…but that’s alot of work! And considering the adoption rate for mobile internet apps and search marketing is growing faster than any other marketing medium…

I’d say it’s safe to assume there are lots of possibilities.

So don’t worry newspaper titans…and don’t sweat the small stuff advertising moguls…there’s still a need for your services. You just might have to adapt a slightly more convergent approach to getting clients to trust you again.