On-Demand Generation

It seems that every week, I read in a newspaper, ironically enough, that another newspaper is either cutting back its print edition or announcing its final edition. There's no doubt that the (media) times, they are a-changin' (sorry, Mr. Dylan).

Just think, future generations will be puzzled to hear that in our day, to watch Seinfeld, we had to be home at nine on Thursday nights; to read the news, we had to buy a physical newspaper using physical currency which we called "cash" and that it wasn't so easy for anyone to broadcast video to millions nightly -- unless of course you had an awesome name like “Arsenio.”

While it may seem like today's on-demand consumption of increasingly segmented media threatens the value of PR, it's actually the opposite. As broadcast TV viewership wanes and the glossies are on a serious diet, there is a boom in online publications where our earned media placements find a second long tail of never-ending shelf life through the multimedia Web sites of TV programs, newspapers, magazines, blogs and mobile devices. It could be argued that these on-demand impressions are more valuable than traditional ones, since the content was requested by, not forced on, the audience.

At Emanate, we’re helping our clients reach consumers by staying on top of where and how people choose to get their news – whether it’s the traditional daily newspaper or today’s tweets and Facebook. Because, as Mr. Dylan continued…

Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Jaret Posmentier