The Switch to Digital Media

With the internet changing the way millions of people receive their news, media organizations are realizing that a straight switch to digital is not quite the answer.

Patrick Smith of TheMediaBreifing.com wrote an interesting article on how our society is not yet completely digital. Many citizens (of the UK in Smith’s article – and I’m sure many American’s as well) don’t even have internet access. Smith estimated that 8.73 million UK adults have never been online.

This is a large audience that is being missed by the digital armada. Some could argue that a blog post or an online story is only as good as its potential audience deems it.

Smith points out that the growing use of smart phones and tablets is leading to a larger consumption of media online. Mehreen Khan and Salamander Davoudi of Financial Times (ft.com) commented in their article Future of Communications that, “As newspapers and magazines innovate to meet the demands of the new consumer, the transformation should be seen as an evolution, not a threat.”

It is no question that the internet has changed the way that we consume information. However, marketing and media outlets cannot simply flick a switch and move into a digital world. The progress with be gradual, but unstoppable.