Free Newspaper Future, and the Popemobile on the Social Media Highway

Two briefs in today’s Bulldog Reporter Daily Dog (one of my favorite round-ups of media/PR/marketing news) caught my eye this morning. Both great examples, or perhaps harbingers, of the new media future we are working towards.

The Pope is now texting - are you serious? Makes me feel even more lame that my Blackberry’s text function is on the fritz!. But according to a recent Reuter’s report carried by DD, the pontiff himself is getting into text messaging to reach youth of the world with messages of inspiration. No joke…

Pope Benedict will text message thousands of young Catholics on their mobile phones during World Youth Day in Sydney in July, hoping going digital will help him connect better with a younger audience. The Pope will text daily messages of inspiration and hope during the six–day event while digital prayer walls will be erected at event sites and the church will set up a Catholic social networking website akin to a Catholic Facebook, Reuters reports

Attempting to reach people’s souls through digital media? Not sure exactly how I feel about that right now. But the need to target and utilize the channels your key audience is paying attention to is more important than ever right now.

Speaking of channels, newspaper editors seem to be coming around to the fact that more and more of their future readership is going online for news - and rarely having to pay for it. So says a recent survey, stating,

‘Newspapers seeking to compete with the Internet are likely to become free and place greater emphasis on comment and opinion in the future, a survey of the world’s editors showed this week.’

‘Some 86 percent of respondents believed newsrooms should become more integrated with digital services as two in three believe the most common form of news consumption will be via electronic media such as online or mobiles within a decade.

I can hear the early adopters out there saying, “About time!” What will be interesting to see is if these newsrooms put time/effort into training their traditional media staff, expand their newsrooms to incorporate the generation of young journalists brought up with the new media, or continue to cut staffing due to declining readership (and who really wins there?)

It is a tough media landscape as everyone tries to figure out who is reading/listening to what. Heck, even the Pope is looking for new ways to get his message out there.

-Jess