Piaras Kelly PR – Public Relations in Ireland

You’ve probably heard how the media landscape is changing, if not have a read of the BBC’s recent coverage about it. There’s lots of hype about how people are dumping one medium for another, but what needs to be realised is that the public suddenly has more choice than ever before. Naturally enough as a result their consumption habits will change.

People’s tastes change over time. It’s a fact of life that many people seem to overlook. More importantly though, just because people are using one medium doesn’t mean that they’re not using another. That’s why I like to think of the Internet, newspapers, TV, radio, etc a bit like alcohol.

Guinness, Ireland’s most famous alcoholic beverage, recently disclosed that its sales have started to dip. With all the fine weather we’ve recently been having, people are turning to other drinks like Bulmers to quench their thirst in the summer months. It’s not that people don’t like Guinness anymore, but their tastes have changed and their change in consumption reflects this.

For people to say that we should dump one medium for another is stupid. Are Guinness customers suddenly going to stop drinking it altogether? No.

What should be noted is that different media can be consumed at the same time and people can switch between them rather than strictly sticking with one.

My tipples of choice include Corona, Heineken and Smithwicks. I switch between them depending on my mood, where I’m drinking and who I’m out with. In much the same way, my media consumption depends on a lot of different factors. I get the news from the freesheets I pick up on the way to work, check up on the days events as they happen on the web and I tune into Sky News in the evenings.

Different mediums will cater for different tastes, I’ve said it before so I’ll copy and paste:

Interesting analysis my boss made the other day at work:

The Internet will be the medium people turn to for breaking news.

People will tune into broadcast media because it captures the emotion of a story.

Newspapers will continue to be read because they will provide analysis of the event.

As Mike Walsh would say, “Mediums don’t die. The economics just change.”

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