For the last several months we’ve all witnessed – if not personally experienced – upheaval and change. We have downsized, made painful cuts, seen our savings account dwindle and made personal and professional sacrifices that we wouldn’t have imagined making a year or two ago. The actions we took were necessary for the survival and strength of our businesses. But now what to do? Do we simply hold on, try to ride out the storm, a storm that has no foreseeable abatement?

Perhaps.

But we cannot afford to congratulate ourselves, stand idle or even exhale. Because we have one other problem/situation (whatever you want to call it): the ever-changing forces of THE MARKET. Through this economic malaise, know this: the market changes ever day. The market – the all-encompassing word I’m using to describe your customers, trends, consumer patterns – is a pulsating organism that never dies, that lives and breathes, that makes decisions that affect us. It’s up to us to adapt – or die. Whenever there’s a push, there’s a pull; a cause, an effect. These market changes are rapidly taking place in the world of media.

Because The Media is Dying

In fact, it’s been dying. There are at least three market forces contributing to this funeral march:

1) The rapid advances in technology that has your customers tethered to laptops, iPhones and Blackberries. They no longer wait to get the morning paper, they log on. They no longer send letters, they email. They Google for information instead of using encyclopedias, and they use OpenTable to make restaurant reservations. They trust Zagat or TripAdvisor (both feature user generated content – NOT editorial) more than they trust Food + Wine or Conde Nast Traveler. They bookmark certain blogs. They want instant answers; they want convenience.

2) The tsunami called social media (Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter). These online communities are just that – communities. And they are now sources where people get their information; it’s where they are influenced, where messages are sent and received – in many cases, marketing messages.

3) An imploding economy that has paralyzed print advertising spending, let alone newspaper and magazine sales, let alone increasing the costs of printing. Paper costs money. Printing a paper does too. Having desks and offices for editorial staff costs money as rents rise.

So how bad is it? Is the media really dying? On Long Island, Distinction Magazine, Long Island Weddings and Parents & Children have ceased publishing. Ditto Builder/Architect. Nationally Domino, Lipstick and dozens of smaller magazines have folded. The Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday, New York Observer, Denver Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Newark Star Ledger have all cut staff and eliminated sections – so have scores of others.

It is the smart business owner – you who have already survived – that needs to now completely rethink your marketing approach. Is your ad buy really effective? How about your entire marketing program? The media may not be dead, but it sure as hell is changing. You, like them, must adapt – or die.

Have you adapted? Are you willing to adapt? Have you seen changes in yourself as per how you get your news or information? Does your company have a social media marketing plan yet?

Tell me what you think. Your comments are not only welcome, but necessary for this conversation.

Blogger’s Note: It’s definitely a depression and not a recession and I don’t care what definitions economists use. Now that I got that off my chest, here are 4 Reasons I Love This Depression. Hint: all of them are designed to make me a better leader.

1) We Got Lean and Mean. Everyone loves that expression and right now it’s a necessity. If for some reason you haven’t gotten lean, you better get on that diet now. For us, the leanness was found in looking at the smaller expenditures – the habit of, let’s say, always ordering a case of paper, when in fact we already had 3 cases. We cut all unnecessary expenses and then went over everything again in a month and found more. You’d be surprised what you might find is slowing your cash flow down (uh, unnecessary purchases). In 2009, we will make more online bill payments, conserve energy by monitoring the thermostat and hold off on major purchases. We will survive. Period. And I get to walk around saying, “We got lean and mean.”

2) We Made Ourselves Pause and Plan. All retail companies take inventory at the end of each month. But the kind of inventory I’m talking about is much more drastic: it involves pausing and stripping down the basic direction and focus of one’s company to see if it is, in fact, still viable. It’s called a visioning – and it takes stock of where we’ve been, where we are now and where we want to go – from a position of strength and focus. Who are our best customers? What makes them the best? How could we lose clients? What are our strengths and our weaknesses? Why will clients hire us? Fortunately for us, we have Lady Foster in our employ (Account Director, Suzee Foster), who led us in ours. We argued over words; we ached to go back to our desks and check email. Each time we do our visioning we come out of it an enormously stronger and more focused company. It is a gift we gave ourselves – and our clients.

3) We Acknowledged What Really Matters. We had a rough fall. Who didn’t? What’s the old saying? Revenue = vanity; profit = sanity; cash flow = reality. Well, I was humbled, insane and brought my loose change the Coinstar machine at the local King Kullen. (It wasn’t that bad, but you get my point.) But what really matters? Health, family and friends. I’m a better leader when I’m spending time with my family (mom is 90), swimming at the Y, reading a really good book (Brisingr) or navigating abstract art at MoMA. Yes, it’s a balancing act. But having balance helps me sleep well. And when I sleep well, I lead well. And I’m a better father to my son and son to my Mother. And that’s what really matters.

4) We Made a Decision: Lead or to Bleed. So this lousy, stinking, rotten economy has given me cause for thought: am I going to lead or bleed? Am I going to whine or inspire? Are we going to give our best efforts for our clients and for each other? I think you know the answer.

What about you? Do you have any reasons you love this depression? I’d love hear about them.