Digital marketing strategy: What traditional media can't provide
Rupert Murdoch
On The Web
- Three Ships Media
- Independent report
- WRAL Tech Wire at Twitter - sign up today for latest news alerts
Site Search
By PETER WYLIE, special to LTW
Editor’s note: Local Tech Wire asked Peter Wylie for his reaction to Facebook’s changes in privacy policy this week. Wylie is a researcher at Three Ships Media, a social media marketing company in Raleigh, N.C. He was previously an editor for an online business journalism company in Washington, D.C.
RALEIGH, N.C. - Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., has adamantly defended his decision to put the Times of London behind a pay wall. It is a last gasp effort by a traditional media company to migrate an offline business model to the online world, and one that appears to be failing miserably.
The Independent reported that traffic is down 90 percent on the Times site, advertisers are rapidly abandoning the site as well, and even public relations firms are ceasing to provide exclusives to the Times because their stories do not get indexed in search engines due to the pay wall.
Traditional media have struggled to remain relevant in the digital age, and they have yet to find viable online business models.
Newspapers, radio and television stations, and phone book companies are just a couple of types of media companies that have struggled to find a way to generate sufficient revenue from their online activities. The plethora of free media choices that consumers can access do not have to sustain the legacy costs of these traditional media companies, and can generate profits while providing quality content.
As traditional media companies struggle to earn more from their digital operations, some have increased the amount they charge for their online and offline advertising units. The increase in price coupled with decreases in the total audience of these media makes them even less attractive options for businesses seeking to reach their target customers.
What’s more, businesses that used to have to settle for buying space in traditional media outlets can develop their own media platforms to communicate with potential customers and current clients.
Traditional media companies need to get much more flexible and adapt to new consumer realities, rather than attempt to force antiquated models on unwilling participants. The businesses that provide the revenue that sustains traditional media are forging ahead in digital marketing and connecting directly with their customers through blogging, social network interaction, and email.
The future looks bright for digital upstarts that understand the new Internet economy and those firms that help businesses connect directly with customers online. Traditional media companies are stuck in traditional practices that appear likely to doom them to irrelevance.
Get the latest news alerts: Follow LTW at Twitter.
Copyright 2012 WRAL Tech Wire. All rights reserved.
Featured
E-mail Preferences
The Skinny
- What brands are winning Super Bowl hype? Two Durham firms to find out
- In Super Bowl of social media, Patriots win, Triangle firm says
- Big job cuts coming at IBM? Don't be surprised
- Erskine Bowles is among those who can cash in big time on Facebook IPO
- Ignore Facebook hype - Check out 'risk factors,' too
- Facebook vs. Google IPO: Which deal ranks better?
- Triangle StartUp Factory says business already booming
- Entrepreneurship remains at heart of Tech Wire mission
- Flashback: Tech Wire launched 10 years ago today
- Silicon Valley's 'most provocative voice' - Former RTP exec Vivek Wadhwa