Rance Crain, publisher of Ad Age and a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, listened to the new dean of the school, John Lavine, address the challenges facing media professionals today. Here’s a bit of what he heard:
“The challenge will be to engage increasingly elusive audiences who, in real time, rapidly form and deteriorate. Yet without a motivated, connected audience neither a free press nor marketing will survive,” Lavine told members of Medill’s board of advisors.
He said both journalism and advertising need to do the same jobs: create a “relevant, differentiated” story or message, and motivate an audience to spend more time listening to and reading about the message.
He saw that “unless an audience puts in the time” with your medium and your message, “you don’t have anything.”
