Mainstream is the New Media

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeA new MS&L survey this week revealed that 84 percent of digital influencers go online to find out more about something only after first reading about it in magazines and newspapers or hearing about it on TV or the radio.

Despite widespread layoffs, less time and resources for in-depth reporting, and that inescapable sinking feeling, mainstream media is indeed still mainstream.

And with their prevalence and influence still cemented in the habits of the masses, those mainstream magazines, newspapers, TV and radio outlets are really starting to get clued-in on the opportunities of the Web.

At nearly every commercial break, broadcasts are incorporating call-to-actions to get consumers to their Web sites. Newspapers print story teasers that can be only read online. And each week Newsweek devotes an entire page to Xtra.Newsweek.com features, Top 10 most popular stories on Newsweek.com and "exclusive coverage from our bloggers and columnists."

When you go visit these mainstream media sites, you'll find breaking news features, the aforementioned exclusives, full segment streaming video, and oh yeah -- banner ads, advertorials and pop-ups. There's a marketing model here and money to be made when consumers go online for news.

My 77 year-old Grandma is a wonderful test case. Grandma watches Good Morning America every single morning. She watches her local CBS news every single night. In fact, Grandma subscribed to her hometown newspaper for more than a decade after she moved 300 miles away.

But Grandma goes online, too. She sends me GMA and WCCO-TV links all the time -- although sometimes it's a blank e-mail with a subject saying cryptically, "Diane had a good story on radon today," assuming I will to online to find it.

Grandma isn't big on paying, though. She still uses rabbit ears on her television (for now), and after her little local paper raised the out-of-state subscription price, she stopped getting "the paper" and started reading the news -- for free -- online. Certain features and the archives are held behind a password protected, subscriber-only wall. But like many consumers, Grandma is stubborn, penny-pinching and just decided to live without those sections.

This week there was a big move in mainstream media's business model shift. The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News announced big changes for 2009, including limiting newspaper home delivery to Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays and relying more on niche Web portals (e.g., MomsLikeMe.com, Highschoolsports.net) for online coverage and community building.

Scores of Detroit residents may miss their dead-tree-edition news in the morning, but at least there will be news written locally to read. On the local advertiser side, car dealers and real estate companies are sharing their good thoughts on the potential for online marketing while partnering with a big media company. Time will tell if the new business model works equal to or better than the century-old model we're all used to. But that old model certainly isn't working today.

In Grandma's case, if her hometown newspaper stopped printing copies entirely, Grandma wouldn’t even notice. But if they stopped updating the free portion of the Web site, she would.

If mainstream is the new media, that opens the door to countless questions and experiments. Will consumers really pay for online news in 2009? How much will they pay? Is a donation or sponsorship model more realistic? How will local papers shift and adapt to the changing new mediasphere so vital to the news economy? How will start-ups like Highschoolsports.net monetize their affiliation with large media companies? When will robotic Google News customized to user interests become the mainstream?

One thing's for sure. People won't just stop going online for news. As legacy media outlets continue moving more content online, our news consumption habits will continue to evolve.