And, judging by these three items, this simple fact is being forgotten.

This, this and this all highlight a stark reality – for journalists, PRs and marketers alike – that unless we are delivering key messages via strong, objective, informative, engaging content to our target audiences on their preferred platforms, we’ve lost them.

Journalists: readerships are falling offline, audiences are choosing their news and features elsewhere more so than at any other point in the history of printed material. The pressure is on, editorial numbers continue to be culled, publications are dying.

PRs: wasting client retainers trying to convince disenfranchised editors to publish client product and service press releases in dwindling newspapers and magazines to gain valueless column inches is a dis-service to clients, audiences and media relations.

Marketers: trying to flog the same channels as used for the last decade is clearly increasingly ineffective – changes are required, to protect your market share, to ensure customer acquisition and moderate growth, as well as staving off the competition.

So, it’s time for tough evaluation.

Are you taking your editorial/PR copy/marketing messages where the audiences are? Or are you on auto-pilot, relying on the same old same old? How long before your audiences have disappeared on you completely?

It is not a negative blog post – far from it. Sometimes a violent change is required to deliver positive, long-lasting sustenance.

The future is, and always was, online. Are you there?