Full disclosure.  I like newspapers, especially on Sundays.  What’s better than seeing your hands black with newsprint after reading the New York Times, and yes the Wausau Daily Herald.  The problem is, I’m in the minority; and it’s not just newspapers — toss in local television and radio stations and you’ve got yourself three relics heading for the endangered species list.

2008 was a remarkable year; not just because the economy went into a freefall, but because it was the first time that we spent more time in front of a computer or handheld screen than we did a television screen.  And although that’s great for Hulu, Facebook, YouTube and MySpace, it stinks for our local economy.  Today, media fragmentation isn’t only a national concern, it’s also a local concern.  There are hundreds of television networks, thousands of syndicated radio shows, magazines galore to choose from, millions of Internet sites to advertise on, and plenty of out-of-home media options.  What’s a media buyer to do?  Actually, it’s probably easier to buy regional and national advertising nowadays than it is local advertising.

As newspaper circulation dwindles, along with viewership and listenership at television and radio stations, it leaves a terrible hole in local markets.  For much more than a century, the newspaper was one of the strongest ways to get a message to a wide group of consumers.  Now, local blogs are popping-up in towns all over the country, and although they generally serve a purpose, there is no indication that the vast majority of them are serving an advertising purpose.  Many local city blogs are staffed by writers, not by salespeople offering a digital ad program backed by analytics and proven readership.  In fact, you would typically need to buy dozens of local blogs to even come close to reaching an audience comparable to that of a newspaper.  The point is, media fragmentation allows us a limitless source of information and entertainment, but it does nothing to help the local economy.

Still, most advertising dollars end up in traditional outlets, and so few go to local online ventures.  But slowly, those advertising dollars are drying up, and as they do, the local media outlets become more vulnerable to outside online companies and other media properties, and as they cut costs and their resources are diminished, so is a local advertisers’ once mighty platform for delivering a message across a local audience.  It’s really a shame.  Just think if you lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, or owned a retail store in town.  Sorry folks, no more newspaper (they still have a website, however, and publish a small paper twice a week).  The fact of the matter is keeping our local newspaper, television and radio stations healthy and prosperous is very important to the health and prosperity of a local economy.  Right now, there’s a big movement in the produce section of your local grocery store to Buy Local – why not add Read Local, Watch Local, Listen Local to the movement?