Editorial: The more things change, Newspaper Advertising remains

A person reading an actual book, magazine or newspaper is just as commonplace now as it has been down through the ages long before the onset of the digital revolution that was supposed to have been the death knell for print.

In fact, the argument about saving the trees has long been reduced to compost as more wood is used for building than its by-products are used for printing.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

We still love to read. A tactile and emotional connection is made when fingers, paper and brain interact.

But in the 21st century, information overload and being bombarded with volumes of online content act as barriers and walls - sometimes extracting a toll before you move on or even to move in.

It seems counter-productive even to the point of trying to scale that ‘wall’ counter-intuitive.

The printed content is less hassle.

Whatever happened to reading without being interrupted? Nowadays the incessant interruptions even erupt right through what you are reading or trying to read!

The blitz of the bombardment of advertising and enticements to try every manner of concoction and contraption explains why so much of online content gets lost ‘in the wash’.

Digital risks becoming a victim of its own success. Information lost means lost opportunities, especially in the field of advertising; whether promoting products or trying to recruit people.

The onslaught of ‘content’ intercut with globs of advertising demanding that you ‘click here to continue reading’ or taking you on a detour into a forest of advertising that you almost soon forget what you started reading in the first place, boggles the mind.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

The much-vaunted digital revolution has without doubt revolutionised access to information. But that it’s now at risk of being a victim of its own success.

Content management is now a full-time job…not just for the ‘content managers’ but the consumers of the content they produce.

Somewhere along the line in the past few years we started missing the message simply because there’s just too much of it.

Time spent online is now more about quantity of time rather than the quality of the experience.

And within that important messages get lost both ‘in translation’ and due to the sheer volume of distraction.

There’s something special about a well-crafted piece of advertising art that holds your attention without itself being an obstruction.

Oh for the days when a good advert was worthy of being framed; of being a gentle suggestion and not a mind-numbing clarion ‘call to action’.

The days when an advertisement was a trustworthy companion gently, almost unobtrusively, suggesting to you the best value for your money; putting you directly into the hands of the people you want to reach.

It worked before and it’s still working now.

For local employment in small markets, where access to a local talent pool of expertise and experience is just a page away. And it’s easier to find…and file.

(Ever tried copying, pasting, saving, filing…and then trying to find whatever ever it was that you had copied, pasted, saved and filed amongst the hordes of other stuff that you had copied, pasted, saved and filed somewhere…amidst lots of other stuff digitally filed someplace?

That might work for large office and business enterprises. Not necessarily so when all you want is to find someone local to do the job who want to get done, and that potential employee just wants to get that job.

Whether they be Caymanians or work permit holders, that pool of talent is there.

Reaching out to them and having them reach back out to your business is good for business, jobs and the economy.

In this COVID pandemic, many people have left Cayman, but many more have stayed, and many others have returned.

Many did not leave because of sheer practicalities; the 14-day quarantine could mean a lost two-week pay packet and further out-of-pocket expense for employee and employer.

Communication is key in getting the job market moving but its crucial to make the process as seamless and uncluttered via a meeting place for employers and potential employees.

That ‘meeting place’ could very we be in your local paper. In fact, it is.

In these times, print has maintained its place without excessively competing for…or with… cyberspace.

All things to their own time and place.

The more things change etc etc etc.