Analysts: 2008 New Media Trends

by Janet Meiners

I’ve written about the trend of ad dollars going from traditional to New Media. Analysts at The Kelsey Group have a list of predictions for the new year. Since the Kelsey Group services the Yellow Pages, one of their predictions is about the Yellow Pages print version. Rather than putting money there, they predict that they’ll print and distribute less books. They’ll shift to the Internet, sometimes exclusively, to reduce costs.

“We believe the next downturn will favor media choices that are more flexible and provide a lower cost per lead than print directories, which would signal a profound shift.” Charles Laughlin, senior vice president and program director, The Kelsey Report® and managing editor, The Kelsey Group.

Other predictions see more growth in the auto and real estate industries online. They also predict more search through “specialized devices” (like cell phones?).

Here are some of the predictions from the Interactive Local Media analyst team:

More options for SEO and SEM. There will be many new start-ups focused on the auto and real estate markets. They expect MLS listings on non-Realtor.com sites.

Local advertisers will continue to use the rise of online marketing to spend less on advertising, so local search costs will go down.

Adding more video, mobile and outdoor advertising.

Although the headline talks about new media, there weren’t a lot of details. Read the press release here.