Zeno Thinks: So What's A Brand To Do? Navigating the media landscape in 2024 and beyond
As we enter the fifth year of the Covid era, it’s high time we retired the cliché of the “rapidly evolving” media landscape. Let’s be absolutely clear: the media world is not changing. We are well and truly over the tipping point – it has already changed.
This new reality demands a different approach. Old certainties have been consigned to history, with the previously concentrated influence of traditional media diluted by a kaleidoscope of social channels and websites. News organisations continue to be buffeted by economic uncertainties, pared-back advertising budgets and the relentless hollowing out of newsrooms.
In 2023 alone, Reach, the UK’s largest commercial media company, made 650 journalists redundant. This amounts to one in five of their entire editorial staff. And here’s another sobering stat for you: there are now 9,000 more PRs in this country than there are journalists.
Perhaps the biggest change of all, however, comes in the way news is consumed. Most young people interact with the news via social media (a habit which is spreading exponentially across the generations). This has significant implications for comms strategies – but don’t be tempted to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Because people still love stories. And the source of most impactful news stories remains unchanged. Which is to say: traditional journalists provide the spark, social fans the flames. And human stories which move the heart will always be one step ahead of the algorithm.
SO WHAT’S A BRAND TO DO?
This document seeks to answer that question. Five essays tackling the gnarly question of how to communicate in a brave new media world. First a forensic look at the landscape, and how to find the best way forward. Then we plot a route through the choppy waters of “angertainment”, the rise of direct-to-consumer media, the dizzying array of social media platforms and, finally, how technology will shape the future of news.
Five rules for navigating the media landscape in 2024 (and beyond) – because while it has never been easier to reach people, it’s never been harder to make them care.
CONTENTS
1. The Tipping Point – We are consuming more media than ever before, but the means of consumption and range of sources have changed enormously.
2. Cutting through in the age of “Angertainment” – Inflammatory headlines drive a lucrative business model. But is it worth engaging?
3. Mate marketing – The rise of direct-to-consumer media.
4. Platform Panic – Confused by the social media swirl? Here’s a handy rundown of what you need to know in 2024.
5. Technology Will Shape the Future of News – Here’s how.
Full report here
