Online Tops Local Media

Among SMBs, online/digital media took the top spot in 2015 for the first time, supplanting newspapers which held the position for more than 300 years.

“This year, online media shimmied to the top of the local media food chain, appealing to the largest percentage of local advertisers and taking the largest share of ad budgets of any other media. It was a position held by newspapers since 1704. Over the next 12 months, the gap will almost certainly widen to the point that all traditional advertising channels – print, broadcast, outdoor and mail – begin to look like niche support mechanisms to a local businesses’ digital marketing plan.”

“Meanwhile, 82% of SMBs have established their own media channel in the form of a website or social media page. The survey found that 72% of them are purchasing digital services to support those channels, spending far more on those efforts than on basic advertising.”