In fact, research shows that old and new media actually complement each other significantly. 

"Old" versus "new" media is nothing new.  In the five years after the introduction of television, movie theater admissions dropped 22%.  Radio was also impacted dramatically.  Studies show that today's "new" media are having a similar effect.  One survey in 1999 by Gomez Advisors and InterSurvey found 25% of respondents reduced their time reading newspapers and 46% watched television less because of Internet usage.  Another by Gartner G2 found less use of postal mail (by over half of respondents), less long-distance telephone calls (one third), less television viewing (20%), less newspaper reading (20%), less movie going (18%), less video watching (15%), and less magazine reading (15%).

But we have nearly double the number of theater screens today than in the 1930s heyday of the motion picture, and  more radio stations.  And while internet usage (and its capability as a medium) keeps growing, some of the old media are still showing surprising strength.  Old media will lose share, revenue, and influence, but they may not lose all their value.

The reason for this is that historically, people don't abandon old media.  They find ways for old and new to work together.   Radio survived television because it allowed people to listen while they were doing other things like driving or working.  Newspapers provided depth of coverage that other media couldn't.

So we continued to use them all, just for different reasons.

And research suggests that we're doing the same thing with the current new media.  In fact, some research shows that frequent internet users are more likely to be heavier users of television, magazines--and even newspaper--than people who use less media.

Many of us are information junkies, and the more sources, the better.  And this is a critical point of interest to marketers.  Because it's often a mistake to let a message in one medium stand alone from others.

Who doesn't make sure a web address is included in an ad or TV spot today?  In fact, a great deal of effort is spend focusing readers on the URL.  (We're big fans of Copy Chasers in B to B Magazine, which recently focused solely on how advertisers are highlighting website addresses.  Their winner:  an IBM ad with a pack of bloodhounds, with all their noses pointed to the specific web address in the bottom right corner of the ad.)

One particularly strong argument for making sure there are connections between media is time.  Customers are time starved, but still very concerned about learning as much as they can about products or services that interest them.  They don't have time to shop in person--they do it with information sources.  And the more--and more transparent--the better.  The "clicks and mortar" approach of many stores to feature detailed information online (complete with customer reviews) and allow advance ordering for store pickup shows the value of this.

The research that suggests frequent internet users also are more likely to use other media also shows the importance of making sure that in addition to driving people to a website, the website connects them to other media options.  On YouTube, for example, there are commercials that have more than 5 million views--more than the viewership of many TV shows.  In some cases the advertisers didn't even post the commercials themselves--viewers did. 

For one more example of the interconnection, consider this:  The grand prize winner at the 2007 Cannes Advertising Festival is a made-for-internet film for Dove called "Evolution," which graphically shows the difference between the illusions of beauty in our society and the real world.  The film was designed to drive viewers to Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty website, which then offers a series of print workbooks that mothers and daughters can use to feel more confident about their appearances.  There are also articles by experts on image and media and a variety of other resources.

All of them interconnected and working together to convey an important--and complex--message.

Viewers got to the Dove film online from a variety of sources.  One of the most important:  articles in old-media newspapers and magazines.

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