It’s coming. To be clear, I said “Newspapers” and not “The Death of Papers” or the “Death of News Coverage” just like TV was not the death of radio but did significantly impacted radio after it was introduced and for that matter while movies did help kill vaudeville it did not kill theater. The printed paper will not die nor will news coverage, just the format that we (those over 30) know and love. It will evolve into something else. We are already seeing that with newspapers moving totally online and new, experimental online news sites appearing.
Others will argue that, like global warming, the death of newspapers is not going to happen. I believe it is now a question of when and no longer of if. While I don’t celebrate or morn the death of newspapers I do morn the death of newspaper advertising which I believe the museum community to be wholy unprepared for. For museums, particularly history museums, newspapers along with direct mail are main way to reach their 55+ years old audience. Once they are gone what is their advertising plan B to reach that audience? I am not just talking about direct paid ads placed in newspapers but also of sponsorships from newspapers and in-kind advertising as well as calendar postings of events and exhibits. After the “news-papers” are gone where can the coveted 55+ age be reached?
I just attended the Museums and the Web 2009 Conference. Up until then I was trying to figure what I wanted to blog about. The last thing the web needs is yet another technology blog. There are already several good blogs on museums. I want to blog about a subject that I know about, yet want to use the blog to help me learn more that subject. I just attended the Museums and the Web conference and I am upset. I now know what I want to blog about.
During the conference, the organization I am web designer/developer for, the Minnesota Historical Society, announced layoffs of 93 of my co-workers with another 223 co-workers getting reduced hours, which amounts to 46% of the total staff affected. This includes the closing of three historic sites and a reduction of services. The lack of revenue which spawned the layoffs is not due fiscal incompetence on their part but rather in preparation for an anticipated 15% reduction in funding from the state of Minnesota and a anticipated 20% shortfall in non-state revenues. I know not only my workplace was hit with cuts and layoffs but also other museums in the Twin Cities where affected as well, not to mention most of the museums at the conference.
During the conference sessions, while there was plenty of hushed chatter about museum budget cuts and layoffs there was little formal discussion of it in the sessions – at least the ones I attended. Curiously there was a noticeable lack of “web marketing” discussion in the conference sessions and workshops. There was indirect discussion of museums and marketing in a “we-are-too-academic-to admit-that-what-we-doing-with-social-web-is-actually-marketing” angle. The only two people that I witnessed at the conference really discussing the use of web as a pull for museums rather than museum web sites as existing as a thing on it’s own were Gail Durbin from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Nina Simon of Museum 2.0 blog fame. I did attend however have a lovely informal “Birds of a feather” breakfast discussion on fundraising and museums but that really was about it.
At the closing plenary of the Museums on the Web Conference there was sort of religious revival style action with people invited to testify their experience at the conference, what they liked, what they didn’t, what they would like to see next year. Other than Nina Simon talking about the very talented staff of the Brooklyn Museum of Art not attending due to financial cutbacks no one mentioned the financial crisis affecting museums and worse still no one mention the need for museums and web marketing sessions at the “MUSEUMS and the WEB 2010 Conference” …and the band played on….
So now I know what I want to blog about: Web Marketing for the Museum. There are only a couple of blogs on museum marketing but neither with a web focus. While I am not an expert on the subject it seems to be a timely and needed blog to start a dialog. Besides no one else seems to want to talk about it. So… Roar!
