Media Metrics

Day in and day out, we read about how mainstream media ("MSM," according to the digirati) is under constant threat from cellphones, the Web, the blogosphere and podcasts
as well as from other nascent technologies vying for mind share. Well, we don't have to take up a collection for Big Media just yet nor, for that matter, should PR pros buy
wholesale into the notion that mainstream media is rapidly going the way of the Edsel. (Last time we checked, the dinosaurs were around for a few thousand years before they
finally punched out.)

A look at the online consumption rates in the nation's Top 10 markets reveals that, when they finish with the Web, folks are likely to read the most established newspapers; to
wit, people logging on in the New York City area turn to the New York Times and the same for people in Dallas who read the Dallas Morning News.

What's more, several of the Top 10 Internet sites, per Delahaye, can't help but be called mainstream media when you consider who's paying the sites' bills: CNN.com
(Time Warner), About.com (The New York Times Company) and MSNBC.com (Microsoft and General Electric). And the geniuses at Google probably could
have gotten away with calling themselves mavericks a few years ago, but no longer, not when their stock is trading at a cool $311 per share. For PR pros, the conversation
shouldn't be about old media versus new media but, rather, who's the audience and what media vehicle(s) will it take to get your message out most effectively?