And apparently it has been for quite some time.
I’ve worked in publishing for over 20 years, and for most of that time I bought into the notion that the Internet was the the main reason print media was in decline. The erosion of b2b magazines in particular coincided with the rise of the web, and as web 2.0 kicked in, those same magazines went into freefall.
A closer look, however, reveals that print has been in decline for over 60 years—ever since the rise of broadcast journalism. Consider this: In 1947 there were 140 newspaper subscriptions per 100 households. Today that number
Continue reading Print This: Video Is The “New” Type
I used to direct the annual strategic plan for a weekly news magazine. If you’ve kept even half an eye on media news, you can just imagine how some of those planning sessions went. At various times everything about our business would get dissected, analyzed, attacked or defended. It got down to such introspection as, “What are we, why are we here, and what is news?” Media Philosophy 101.
With the knowledge that we were an advertising-based business in print, online and with events, one person said we were a media company. Another (probably a marketer, though I don’t recall) chimed in,
Continue reading It’s News To Me!
I’ve been reading Jaron Lanier‘s book, You Are Not A Gadget: A Manifesto. It’s so thought provoking—mind-bending, really—that I’m compelled to post something to pass the word on what a good read it is.
As you may know, Lanier is a leader in computer science, as well as a composer, visual artist, and author. He’s the founder of VPL Research and is the guy who popularized the term “virtual reality” back 1980′s.
I had some brief reservations before writing this, since I’m a huge fan of social media, and this book takes it down a peg or two. Or three. But social media
Continue reading Social Media, Reductionism, and Living An Analog Life
A friend recently asked me to explain integrated marketing. I told him how a good strategic marketing plan worked, how it defines a coordinated way to go to market and creates a plan that all departments could refer to. I talked about the essential elements of a plan. But that got me to thinking, “What brings a good plan to life?”
A good strategic plan is essential to the success of a business. That plan can take the form of volumes of work containing SWOT analysis, portfolio analysis, segmentation studies, financial reports, forecasting, and the like, all painstakingly developed over the course
Continue reading Marketing 101: The Essence of Integration
An ad agency friend of mine recently told me that he “didn’t get” social media. My knee-jerk reaction might have been, “He’s right. He just doesn’t get it.” But that would be missing the point. It’s well and good to believe in the power of social media—I’m a huge proponent of social media, in fact—but beware of over-imbibing in Social Media Kool-Aid.
Social media proponents often forget (or dismiss) the many people who “don’t get it,” or just don’t care about it. Oftentimes social media evangelists preach at them, drowning them with statistics, until the nonbeliever is converted. Or exhausted. Lots of
Continue reading Social Media Myopia
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What is The Shortest Distance? The Shortest Distance is a blog about storytelling, integrated marketing strategies, social media, and the many ways they can work together to help people connect and businesses succeed.
Bruce is a seasoned marketing pro who has improved the performance of a variety of corporations by combining solid integrated marketing strategies with compelling content and leading-edge Web 2.0 tools.
His background in brand and product marketing, operations, management, design, publishing and sales, along with his classical training at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, give him a 360º perspective on today's marketing opportunities.
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