Saturday, March 27, 2010

Twitter

I've started tweeting at http://www.twitter.com/Mark1Oldham    ---not sure what that will do to my longer posts as well as the frequency thereof here at catchmyblog, but will prolly reduce for a while. You are encouraged to follow me!

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Print is NOT dead! Southcom is a great example locally

Great article in the WSJ yesterday about how print is just another medium, and that rumors of it's death are entirely premature. You can click here to read it, although it may be in the paid content area
Now, admittedly, I don't subscribe to as many magazines as I used to, particularly ones such as (Time, Newsweek, etc). Those types of magazines are probably heading to the sea of extinction. So broadly, the internet is having major influence on how we, as consumers, stay informed, but not so much that the printed word is going to die completely. Back in the 1930's they claimed that radio would be the demise of newspapers (and to some extent that is occurring 80 years later, but the working model for the local City Paper www.nashvillecitypaper.com is brilliant). Then, critics said that television would replace radio in the 1950's, and lo and behold, both TV and radio compete to this day. So now in the 21st century, the internet is supposed to be displacing print completely. In the final analysis, it's just a fourth medium that has developed before our eyes. Fine, tightly niched print publications are going to thrive long after we are gone. Which is why I am so excited about companies locally like SouthCom. Chris Ferrell and Townes Duncan have put together several very focused print publications all operating under one roof with one sales and management team. They are well positioned to reap the rewards of a company with shared resources that produces various print and internet publications without the large overhead of disparate and spread out organizations. Although the WSJ article mainly alludes to national print magazines, the same can be said for unique companies like SouthCom.