The future of mass media: popularity monetization in social networks?

Recently I have participated in the international roundtable seminar "Modern trends in the media market", organized by the Baltic International Academy and online magazine Baltic-Course.com. Besides the fact that I was very interested to hear the opinion of journalists and publishers on this topic, I thought about what the future of the media would be in terms of corporate communications. In this context, I want to mention two surveys of communication professionals that I conducted four years ago and at the beginning of this year. Analyzing different media and communication channels that are used by companies, I clearly saw that corporate sphere interest in some of them has continued to wane, while others are becoming more popular. For example, the online forums. If in 2010 about 30% of the respondents never communicated there, now – it is about 70 %. In turn, social networks are experiencing rapid growth in popularity. So, 79% of the surveyed companies (in 2010 - 28%) communicated on Facebook in 2014 on a daily basis. Corporate communication more obviously focuses on social networking. In response to questions about in which media companies increased their communication in 2013 and in which they planned to increase in 2014, are coincided trends: social media, news portals and news agencies. However, the most noticeable decline in their communication in 2014 companies are planning into weekly and monthly printed mass media. If portals are to be congratulated with a promising future, it is reasonable to question what awaits the printed mass media. In my opinion, for printed press it is time to seriously use online opportunities for its own sake. So, today the most popular corporate profiles on social networks are media accounts. People willingly read them, as well as participate in discussions. At this time this potential is used in so called "old way” - to increase the popularity of the printed edition and ensure the flow of visitors to the electronic version. Perhaps in time the media will realize that it can monetize the popularity of its social networking profiles, creating new opportunities for corporate communication. Maybe that is what will be the way of development, which traditional media will go on. Use of new technologies will help to stimulate further audience interest, and accordingly communicators carrying their budgets after the audience. During the discussion the phrase of Rainis voiced "The one survives who will change." I think that is now a key important issue for traditional media.