Chris Anderson at The Long Tail summarizes what he calls a “mainstream media meltdown.” The numbers are ugly in the following areas:
- TV: network TV had its lowest ratings week ever in July.
- Music: weekly album sales set a 10-year low in July. For the year, CD album sales are down 4.2%;
although digital single downloads (still less than 10% of the business)
are up 77% and are nearly making up the difference in revenue terms. - Radio: the music radio listening audience is down 8.5% this year alone, continuing a multi-decade decline.
- DVDs: shipments are down 4% so far this year, more than 30 million units behind the same period last year.
- Newspapers: circulation, which peaked in 1987, is declining faster than ever and is down another 2.6% so far this year.
These numbers are important to you because those former consumers of mainstream media are not opting out of the media culture altogether. They’re looking for new sources of information and education and entertainment. And you don’t have to create something that will reach all of them. Instead, you can create programming that will reach the most important of them: your core audience.
Every step of your marketing process should be zeroed in on identifying the audience you most want to reach — and determining what those people are interested in. It’s not about what *you* want to tell them. That’s secondary. Figure out what they want kind of information they want to receive — and how they want to receive it. Then give it to them. Engage them. They’ll love you for it.
