On Print Publications, PR and Burning the Boats.

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Time for you to start burning the boats?

I got my tail slammed in the door last week by one of our occasional clients. She’s always been easy to work with, but last week, the goals of growing her business somehow got in the way of her desire to see her name in traditional print publications. This made for a heated discussion about the value of marketing her and her business via the Internet vs. using traditional print advertising and public relations. She essentially called me a misinformed idjit for even suggesting that the role of printed publications was rapidly diminishing.

I remarked that two years ago, the publisher of no less a publication than The New York Times remarked that he’d be “very surprised” if the NYT was even publishing a printed edition in the next decade. But that didn’t help. Our meeting was cut short and I was shown the door.

:::

Is it coming to this? Eventually, yes.

This morning, U.S. News & World Report announced that next month, they’re ceasing their regular printed magazine in favor of a “predominantly digital publishing model.” In just two years, USN&WR has gone from a weekly to a monthly… and now, to a producer of “selected, single-topic print issues,” such as their annual guide to colleges and universities. In place of their printing presses, the pub announced that they’ll continue to focus on building out their website, and developing more content for emerging platforms, including the iPad.

Very good thinking on their part.

Now don’t get me wrong. Personally, I love the printed word. I’m of the generation that grew up getting our news from newspapers first, radio second, and TV a distant third. Heck, I was the managing editor of a chain of weekly newspapers for a few years; edited three monthly magazines, still write a column for a big trade magazine…still am a voracious reader of books, newspapers, magazines and other periodicals…

…but maybe it’s time to start thinking about burning the boats.

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Let me explain that one.

The tale goes that when Cortez landed in 16th Century Mexico, he ordered his men to burn the ships that had brought them there to remove the chance of them doing anything other than going forth into the unknown New World. Entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape and Ning, recently postulated the same advice for old media companies:

“Burn the boats.”

And more than likely, that’s good advice for you to follow right now, too. Marketing has changed radically, and the good news is that we at Opin are right on top of the ever-changing, rapidly-evolving World Wide Web of marketing for the sake of marketing awareness and share-of-market and all that other good stuff -not to mention good old-fashioned ROI.

Oh, the client? She still doesn’t have her name in traditional print publications, but she could always pay any print publication to make that happen. We don’t recommend our clients pay to see their name in print -we’d much rather show them -and you -the ROI of SEO. After all, we are ALL about growing your business and making money via a wise investment -and there are plenty of vehicles other than traditional print media from which to choose.

If you’re interested in learning about a few of our clients’ success stories, contact us. Maybe you’ll see your name in print on our site, too.

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