“The Death of…” Headlines – Get a Life!

The posts and articles -I particularly notice Media & Marketing info- are all over the web these days. This is Dying. That is Dead. And (the advent / growth of) this has killed that.

Some writers sneak in “is” as their hedge! e.g. “Is the Marketing Campaign Dead”?

Today will be a great day for those who want to inform all that “Target is dead in Canada”!

I normally follow Mother Teresa’s philosophy and quote of being for things, not against (“I don’t participate in anti-War demonstrations, but when you have a pro-Peace rally, I’ll be there”) but I wish these “Death of” proclamations would die.

I think we all agree dinosaurs are dead. But, books? Social media? Newspapers? Nope, not dead.

Here’s my timeline of how we got here: (1) Back in the day – the newspaper arrived on your doorstep and the headline dutifully informed you of the big news (2) Recently – as Wall Street pressed harder and harder for quarterly results – “hey News Boss, let’s amp up that headline to create some more buzz and sales will ya” (3) Now – “wow this digital world is huge; I better have an audacious headline if I want any readership of this”!

Digital obviously changed the playing field of geography. With traditional and local media you pretty much always know where the story / headline relates to. On the web, we see hundreds of headlines and are influenced daily by articles from all over the world.

The reader in Toronto may not think to put the appropriate pinch of salt on the article from the writer in Dallas, with his particular perspectives / market realities. The writer proclaiming “Blockbuster Video stores dead” is pretty safe. But, not for the Maui location clients – we went there 5 times during vacation last year and it was busy!

If a company, industry or medium has gone from 23% to 12% market share in the last 7 years, by all means write the article with rationale, stats, opinion and predictions.

But can we please keep those deadly headlines in check!