WriteLarge.com

I'm pushin' an Elephant up the stairs. I know this. But let me tell you, in December, I got almost _no_ Telemarketing calls from advertising reps. The first week of January, I've received at least 13. I don't even bother checking my voicemail at work because it's someone looking for a call back about any possible spending I might have in mind for their special "Womens Health" Pull-out section.

With the new year, I have made a commitment to spend less time looking at or even considering print advertising. Unless you're going to deliver me the kind of metrics that I get from online ads, don't bother calling, mkay?

Seriously, Print is dead. Why advertise in a medium that nobody cares about, can't demonstrate its effectiveness, and is old before the next edition comes out? Am I under-estimating the shopping power of old people in nursing homes who still read their daily newspaper? Maybe. But I guess I don't really care. I know for a _fact_ that Google Pay-per click is driving traffic to my website. I have to take my rep's word that my print ad is.

Look, Newspapers and Print Periodicals still have a vital role to play in our society. It's just too bad that the lazy bastards who run them can't be bothered to figure out a way to re-monitize their products so that they'll be around in five years to continue to fill that role.

There will always be a niche audience who reads Newspapers and print periodicals. But that niche is going to get more and more unimportant to me going forward.