Warren Adler Predicts the End of Mass Media: Niche Content is In
Posted on March 7, 2007
Bestselling novelist Warren Adler is predicting the end of mass media as we know it. In his new newsletter, Warren discusses the growing disconnect between newspapers' editorial content and their advertising. This has led to the rise of niche media and super-targeted advertising. Anyone who has sat through fifteen minutes of commercials at a movie theater has experienced this phenomenon.
The people The [New York] Times champions, by and large, do not read the newspaper and, for the most part cannot afford the goods and entertainment products it hawks to its audience. I keep wondering how many of the folks they root for can afford a $10 thousand bracelet from Bulgari or a hundred dollar ticket to a Broadway show, zealously and repeatedly advertised within its pages. Indeed, how many of the people who would be the recipients of the largesse it supports for the underclass can even afford a subscription to the paper.Warren says soon we'll see ads on walls, sidewalks and on projections in the air. Coke and Pepsi will pay people to get tattoos with their logos. This is not a happy thing, in our opinion. We love the concept of ad-supported free content (that's the model we use on WritersWrite.com), because is gives people free content. But when it comes to ads being projected all around us in real life, that's something else entirely. And as for having to sit through commercials at the movie theater, after we've already paid for a ticket, well, that really gets us steamed.This disconnect seems to afflict the news magazine business as well, which is another dinosaur headed for extinction along with other general interest magazines. Content aside, the proliferation of television channels, and the overwhelming competition from other amusements like computer games and other exploding advances in technology will eventually force one's attention to niche areas of interest, making it impossible to reach a wide audience with a one size fits all message.
Advertisers are busy looking for other spots to hawk their messages. We wear their logos on our clothes without charge. Buildings, stadiums, parks and other visible public edifices are now being named after businesses and products. Expect more and more venues to sport business' logos and product names. Not an inch of public space will be safe from advertisers, including airplanes and all forms of public transportation.
Movie theaters are forcing their customers to watch endless commercials. Cell phones will soon explode with text, moving pictures and jingles hawking products. News sites will give you a TV report live or canned but first you will have to watch a commercial. Expect ads to appear on prescription drug labels, on doctor's prescription forms, on alarm clocks, and proliferate on old standbys like food packages, book pages, school supplies.