Reality Check

Rufus Olins, chief executive, Newsworks, says the distinction between traditional media and digital media can be unhelpful and even misleading. Who doesn’t have a digital component to their work? We are all digital…

There’s a place in Brighton, close to the sea, where someone has etched “What is Reality?” onto a park-bench. Its author is unknown. A philosophy student perhaps? A dotcom entrepreneur? Or even a befuddled media exec? The point is that sometimes each of us can lose touch with reality.

Establishing the reality in the media landscape today is complex. That’s why we invest so much in measuring it, analysing it, assessing it. If we lose touch with reality, we are not doing our jobs properly.

In my experience there are two things that make sensible people lose touch with reality. The first is commercial pressure: we re-write history to suit our interests; we paper over unsuitable facts to close that deal or win that award. The second is fashion. That’s the one which is more dangerous in a way – and it is hard to be more fashionable than the word ‘digital’.

An agency boss confided to me recently that clients are “only interested in digital” so they put the word “digital” into every line of the media lay down – digital radio, digital TV, digital newspapers – to ensure acceptance of the plan. I don’t know if they included digital doordrops, but apparently it worked. The client was reassured that they were catching the wave.

You can forgive some clients for their confusion about media. Most simply do not have the time to explore the detail of the changing landscape and separate the reality from the hype. There’s an old saying that if a marketing director spends 100% of their time thinking about marketing, only 10% of that will be about advertising, and only 10% of that will be about media. Less than half of the UK’s top 100 advertisers have a dedicated media function.

In the media business though, we are paid to know better, and we are fools if we let the fashion distract us and take our eye off reality. Experts are expected to act thoughtfully and proportionately.

The hottest digital topics are undoubtedly social media and mobile platforms.  I note that John Prescott recently suggested that the national press could take a hike, because there were more people on Twitter than reading the papers. OK he got circulation and readership confused (and he over-estimated the number of Twitter users by a factor of three) but in his mind, he was seriously considering that tweets would replace journalism.

People who talk up social media like Twitter are sometimes guilty, I think, of muddled thinking. The fact that people talk around the water-cooler does not mean that you should buy shares in water-cooler companies – or advertise there. It is what drives the conversations that matters.

To some degree this thinking filters through to internet technology as well. Every medium uses the internet. All so-called ‘traditional media’ are there: TV, radio, newspapers… with digital output, websites, and increasingly their own mobile platforms via smartphones and tablet apps too.

The boundaries are blurring so fast that it is not an ‘either-or’ situation. The distinction between traditional media and digital media can be unhelpful and even misleading. Who doesn’t have a digital component to their work? We are all digital.

It is easy to imagine a time, in the not too distant future, when the word digital becomes redundant. Not because it doesn’t matter, but because it’s simply recognised as a ubiquitous part of all media.

That’s to come. Meanwhile, social and mobile will help drive traffic for all media with something worth reading, viewing and talking about. At Newsworks we have started to explore social media flow. What causes a ‘Twitterstorm’? How does it materialise? What propagates it? How do ‘traditional’ media contribute? The early signs are that the established mass news media (and their journalists) are key factors in driving Twitter to record levels. This may not be a very fashionable conclusion – but it may be the reality.

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