Posted by

Barry Siskind

UFIs Community Manager

It’s no secret that traditional media is in trouble. A recent survey by Pew Research found that the number of full-time employees who work in “news” has fallen to a level not seen since 1978.

One of the results of this survey which directly impacts our industry is that “Daytime coverage of live events fell 30% from 2007, while interview segments — which don’t require a full crew and correspondent, and can be scheduled ahead of time — rose 31%.” This seems to indicate that it may be more of a challenge in the future to lure the media to our exhibitions.

In addition, many newspapers created a new business model by adopting a “metered access” to their news. Here subscribers no longer have free access to a newspaper on line but must register to receive this.

These changes mean that show organizers who have not already done so, need to seriously re-thinking their traditional promotion and focus more on producing content for such things as blogs and social media.

http://www.pewresearch.org/2012/03/19/state-of-the-news-media-2012/

The media is quickly adopting new more powerful and cost effective methods of reaching their audiences because their very survival depends on it. Is our industry moving at the same speed?