OMENS, PORTENTS AND AUGURS - The Pocket Internet

"OMENS, PORTENTS AND AUGURS"

(A speech delivered at a bank marketing convention)

(Page 2)

What's the future for magazines?

"There will be
more specialized
magazines."

There will be more 3-D printing for one thing. But the changes will be broader than that.

Magazines, as you know, are already shifting their editorial formats. Specialized magazines such as Harper's, Atlantic, Saturday Review and Scientific American are increasing their strength in segments of the population -- generally with better educated, higher income people. There will be more specialized magazines.

How about outdoor advertising? By 1980, you will see fewer paste and paper billboards in the cities because fewer locations will be available. Blame urban renewal for that.

Poster showings on the highways will be restricted because of beautification programs and federal and state codes.

In 1980, the emphasis will be on more spectacular units... painted, rotating messages that can be moved from one high-income area to another. With fewer outdoor opportunities, you will have to make your individual messages work harder.

"Automobile listening will
drop off as markets
decentralize and the
travel time between home
and work is reduced."

In radio, too, changes will come fast in the next 10 to 15 years.

The all-news-all-day-long programming concept will expand.

Automobile listening will drop off as markets decentralize and the travel time between home and work is reduced. Housewives will spend less time in the car, too. They'll do more shopping from the house -- perhaps by video telephone.

There will be new, limited-coverage radio networks, operating on special frequencies along major highways. They'll beam travel guidance and information to the traffic along the route -- tell about weather, promote points of interest, warn of approaching cutoffs and intersections. This will be a good medium for advertising restaurants, motels, auto service, or your nearest bank branch.

Now, what about TV?

In 1980, there will be a fifth and sixth and a seventh television network. The fees on the use of satellites like Comsat will be lower -- and there will be more satellites -- so the networks will be able to cover any event, live, from anywhere in the world, at any time. People will still be watching the set five hours a day. To keep them there, the networks will continue their shift to movies, drama and other longer types of programs.

There will be more community antenna television systems bringing nationally televised programs into small towns and rural areas.

UHF will be universal. Every market will be able to have six or seven or even 10 television stations.

"Pay television will
be here, too.
Not because it
is the right way to
go, but because
of economics."

The appeal -- and the audiences -- of TV stations will be fragmented, just as they already have been in radio. There will be stations specializing in conversation or in drama, or movies, sports, or variety shows.

Pay television will be here, too. Not because it is the right way to go, but because of economics. The only way the networks will be able to afford to show multi-million dollar motion picture epics or Broadway shows on first nights or major one-time sports events is to bill the public.

(Go to page 3 of 3)

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