As traditional media business models continue to erode and transition, Pew 2009 revenue results indicate the downward trend is not improving. Newspaper ad revenue from all sources fell another 26% last year, according to Pew Research, a total 43% decline in the last three years. Local TV ad revenue fell 22%, three times the ‘08 decline, Radio is down 22%, Magazines 17%, and Network TV, 8%. Overall on line ad revenue fell 5% as well. Only Cable TV revenue and ethnic media managed to avoid decline last year. Forecasters expect further revenue loss in the future.

Editorial content is also transitioning because of staff cuts from an overall loss of  $1.6 billion in annual reporting and editing budgets, a 30% reduction of total content production capacity, since 2000. But as “reporting” and “editing” capacity declines, “commentary” and opinion-shaping content continues to expand across all media. The result is less hard reporting, more subjective commentary which produces a natural niching of medium, message, and audience.  Pew found, for example, that 71% of Americans now believe most news sources are biased in coverage and 70% feel “overwhelmed by information rather than informed.”  These are accurate perceptions based on current media content trends.

So how do communicators with a specific message to communicate operate in this shifting media matrix?  Strategies haven’t changed that much from the public relations practitioner’s point of view. Despite the negative impact of the worst recession since the Great Depression, communication fundamentals remain constant — know your targeted niche audience, understand the appropriate niche message, and push it through the appropriate and abundantly niched vehicles, which are now more prevalent, open to professional submissions and content ideas, and more affordable than ever before. The critical public relations factor, as always, is the credibility of the source.

Ben Franklin Synthetic Interview visits the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA. L to R, Kelly Lewis, CEO, TechQuest PA, Julie McKenzie, Carnegie Mellon University, Dave Patterson, CEO, NCWM, and Bob Philbin, Board Secretary, NCWM, unveil the new interaction exhibit. Special thanks to Kelly and Julie for coordinating this high tech project for the last two years and for raising $20,000 in grant funds to support the exhibit at NCWM.