Authors and publishers who ignore changes in the media do so at their own peril. It's not particularly enjoyable to watch newspapers' book review sections shrink or disappear altogether, and it's sad to see national and local television (not to mention radio) shows fizzle. And it's especially difficult to watch prestigious newspapers morph into something altogether new ... but to deny those changes, or to hope it won't affect any other newspapers, is to jeopardize book promotion campaigns and the possibility of garnering as much book publicity opportunities now as you did in the "old days."
The Christian Science Monitor, which was a nationally-distributed daily newspaper, has announced its plan to become a weekly print newspaper and to update its online version on a daily basis. That will mean decreasing its operating costs substantially, and it will also mean that book publicists others conducting book promotion campaigns who ignored the online editors at the Monitor will now be pitching them ... or they'll essentially lose the opportunity to get any visibility for their books in that media outlet. Here's the Christian Science Monitor's statement about how the paper will shift from a "print to web-based strategy" in April of 2009.
Scary ... but thought-provoking. And certainly proof that all book publicists have to keep up with media changes if they want to keep their book promotion campaigns strong.
