CCE: Jump on the New Media Bandwagon or Get Left Behind

Posted on | November 3, 2006 | Comments Off on CCE: Jump on the New Media Bandwagon or Get Left Behind

There’s a clear message out there for all those in the business of Continuing Consumer Education (CCE). This isn’t a pencil and paper society any more. New media is the place to be.

Take, for example, the announcement this week of year-to-year circulation numbers of major U.S. newspapers. Not a pretty site. Of 25 papers cited in The New York Times, only 3 registered up-ticks, two of which were New York’s battling tabloids, The Post and The Daily News. The rest are seeing their numbers going down, down, down. The list includes USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and many other historically well respected newspapers. Where are their customers? Some are tuned into public radio, but not necessarily in the traditional way you might think. Take Santa Monica’s KCRW — one of the nation’s largest public radio stations. 760,000 of its listeners tuned into the station’s online stream or downloaded its podcasts in October. That’s a 40% increase in e-traffic since last year, and it means 26% more people are tuning in via the Internet than those listening via a traditional radio.

Television is going the same way. Witness the birth of LX TV Lifestyle Television, an online lifestyle and entertainment site for “young urbanites with a bank account.” It was started by two veteran TV producers from MTV who believe short, 2-minute, made-for-web shows are the next big thing. Visiting the site prompts a video stream automatically, as if you turned on your TV, and you can channel surf — as you browse a selection of the short shows.

All of this is to say that successful CCE needs to go this same route. Those in the business should throw away their pencil and paper and hire a few key leaders with advanced degrees and experience in areas at the intersection of educational theory and new media design.