The future of corporate communication

Future Press has “future” in its name, so we make it our calling. But before we talk about “future,” take a look at this infographic developed by the statistics firm Statista Market Insight. The infographic shows the decline of printed newspapers and magazines in Israel. The decline is visible to the naked eye, but there are important aspects that can be seen in the details.

Note that revenue from circulation and advertising of printed magazines and newspapers fell from $309 million in 2017 to $209 million in 2024, a staggering loss of $100 million in just 7 years. When we look at the performance of these publications year after year, we see that the decline is constant, with no sign of a reversal of the trend, which foretells a future of bankruptcies and liquidations.

The research clearly shows that this decline will not be reversed in the coming years, and it also projects losses in revenue from both circulation and advertising of US$37 million by 2029. Imagine that instead of newspapers, we were talking about a refrigerator factory. These indicators show potential investors that this business is doomed. There is also an additional detail: loss of audience leads to a time when businesses in this sector will simply no longer be able to survive and will have to close.

Although many believe that this decline is due to the fact that people are switching from printed media to electronic media to get information, which is true, there is an even more painful fact, as it reveals that the chance of this business recovering is below zero.

Before analyzing this issue, it is important to point out that this same scenario can be seen in the North American and Brazilian communications markets, where we have noted an identical trend towards the disappearance of printed newspapers and magazines and a real and absolute growth of electronic media. So, if the situation is similar in countries like Israel, the United States and Brazil, what we can deduce is that old media is disappearing along with its audience, that is, this is a phenomenon directly related to the age of consumers of old media, a phenomenon that is impossible to reverse. Just remembering that there are older people who are simply exchanging old media for healthier means of information.

A friend in Brazil, who worked at the largest newspaper in the country, told me in 2010 that the average age of readers of the newspaper “O Estado de São Paulo” was already 60 years old. Look, 60 years was the average age 14 years ago. Today, people who were 60 in 2010 are 74. Note that life expectancy in Brazil in 2023 was 76 years. In the US, 77 years. In Israel, 83 years. This data shows that the old media is losing its audience not only because people are switching to the new media, but mainly because the audience for that media is dying. And it also shows that the old media will have a longer lifespan in Israel, precisely because the older generations will still be around for longer, thanks to the admirable health system. And even so, this will not change the fate of newspapers and magazines in Israel and around the world. 

But why don't newspapers go bankrupt? 

I am always asked this question in my lectures. And I always answer the same thing. Newspapers will go bankrupt! Everywhere. In the United States, more than 2,200 newspapers closed between 2005 and 2021. In practically the same period, half of all journalist jobs disappeared in the United States. In Brazil, we had several major newspapers go bankrupt and closed, such as Jornal do Brasil, Gazeta Mercantil, DCI, Diário de São Paulo and many others. But now we are facing an uncomfortable truth. There are newspapers that are bankrupt and yet continue to operate. I call them “zombie media”, which seek to contaminate people with an incredibly harmful stance towards the societies in which they operate.

Why?

See, the newspaper “O Estado de São Paulo” has already gone bankrupt. At the end of 2023, businessman Rubens Ometto, owner of Cosan and Raízen, bought part of the newspaper's debt and took over the control of the outlet. The operation was carried out jointly with nine other businessmen, totaling R$142.5 million. In Brazil, the actions of this type of businessman are always obscure. It is a caste that moves in the shadows, always looking to grab public money. They are crazy for public money. But look how curious: before joining Cosan, Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello worked, from 1971 to 1973, as a corporate executive at Unibanco, today part of the Itaú Unibanco conglomerate, a globalist bank that supports the left in Brazil. And Unibanco was one of the main creditors of the old newspaper's debt. Ometto, although he appears to be a "defender" of the free market, supports old political parties that are completely corrupt, such as MDB, PSDB and PSD, which are part of what Brazilians call the "centrão" (big center) and which is nothing more than a political group driven by corruption, bribes and easy access to public money. This is why these people support left-wing governments, because it is in these governments that corruption and money are used as currency for votes and the economic strangulation of society. They care little about the consequences of their actions for the country. This is the group that controls the newspaper “O Estado de São Paulo”, once a champion of the defense of democracy and today a mediocre pamphlet that is dedicated to attacking former president Jair Bolsonaro, a real reformer.

It is precisely this phenomenon, on a global scale, that is leading some exponents of the old media to stay alive, despite the accelerated loss of audience. Few people read this garbage, but they try to remain as “a political reference”, mainly due to the media’s past. The same thing happens with the New York Times, controlled by the globalist billionaire Carlos Slim, or with the Washington Post, controlled by the neo-billionaire Jeff Bezos, another globalist idiot, a defender of mass vaccination and censorship of social networks.

See the chart below. In it you will see the accelerated decline of the main newspapers in Brazil, most of which are still alive due to the same strategy used by the old zombie O Estado de São Paulo:

Note that the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo had 114,527 subscribers and readers in 2017, reaching 60,446 in 2022. This is even in the post-pandemic period, when the old media still gained some survival. Thus, the gigantic structure of the newspaper, which was maintained by 114 thousand subscribers in 2017, today needs to be maintained by only 60 thousand. And my experience as a journalist tells me that these numbers are manipulated, that is, the real number of subscribers is even lower. And yet “O Estado de São Paulo” persists, attacking right-wing groups that seek to save the country from the communist corruption that is spreading with the Workers' Party and its allies in Congress, such as the PSD, MDB and PSDB.

But what about companies that need to communicate with society?

With the advancement of new information and communication technologies, practically all relationships between customers and companies now take place through social media, videos and WhatsApp or Telegram. Not only has customer service migrated from the telephone to these new media, but so has marketing, customer acquisition, attracting potential customers, and everything else. You don’t need to place an ad in the corrupt Estado de São Paulo to reach customers. In fact, by doing so, you will attract customers who probably don’t want your products and services. And yet, we still see many companies, including new startups, ignoring the online world and wasting time and money sending “press releases” to a zombie media, completely rotten and controlled by shadowy groups, driven by corruption, bribery, and accessible public money. It’s like buying drugs and then being surprised by the violence on the streets.

In order to engage with new consumers, who are fully immersed in the Internet and social networks, companies will have to adopt non-mediated communication through social media, blogs, videos and online lectures. Wait! What is non-mediated communication?

Think about it for a moment. News published in a newspaper, magazine, radio or TV does not reach the public by chance. The publication of news does not happen randomly. Rather, it goes through the scrutiny and “adaptation” of journalists and editors, who end up giving the facts the appearance that interests them. Thus, criminals become heroes and heroes become criminals. Today, 100% of the old media in Israel openly attacks the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, visibly allying themselves with the country’s most bloodthirsty enemies. In fact, the newspaper Haaretz, the most radical anti-government pamphlet in Israel, with a tiny circulation of just 3%, went so far as to call the Hamas terrorists who kidnapped and killed children, women and men, "freedom fighters". How sordid! Who is paying for this? Who reads this? 

Why is this different from social media? Because in social media, ordinary people act as reporters, publishing news themselves, as well as commenting, liking or sharing publications about companies or government actions. The new media, fully supported by new information and communication technologies, is based on a spectacular tripod that is “like, comment, share”. In other words: you need to produce content that is truly relevant, important, beautiful and interactive, to attract people’s interest amidst a sea of false and misleading information that flows every day.

Companies will need to understand, first of all, their current and potential audiences and start producing truly motivating and interactive content for these people, using the entire arsenal that the exuberant technology of online communication makes available to us: blogs, videos on all platforms, emotional content for social media and even online lectures and podcasts that motivate consumers to choose products and services.

Every time I bring up this subject, the first question people ask me is: “Wait, why emotional communication for social media?” See? The new communication scenario presents us with new features and challenges that until recently were not discussed in the scenario of old media and old advertising models. Today, we clearly see that people assume two roles when they are using this marvel called the “Internet”. The first role is that of the person who seeks information to make a decision. It could be buying clothes, a house, a car, medicine, a trip, financial advice for your business or a lawyer to help your company resolve issues with taxes or consumers. In this role, the person will want a lot of information, whether in the form of blogs, articles or videos or even online lectures or podcasts. So, this is rational information, which helps the person make a decision that can change their life.

The other role is that of the person who is spending time on social media. It is on their lunch break, or at night, before going to bed, or on the weekend. They are not thinking about buying a house, or a car or a trip, but they may be motivated to do something like that if they find something that captivates them emotionally. According to many communication veterans, today it is practically impossible to attract someone's attention without telling them a story. Amazing, isn't it?

To reach this consumer, this citizen, this professional, who sometimes seeks information, sometimes gets carried away by emotion, you need corporate communication that understands these scenarios and creates valuable content in both formats. The world of corporate communication today is a sea of opportunities. That's why you need partners who understand these changes and create content in different formats and for different interests like someone firing a machine gun.

Nothing has changed more than information and communication technologies in the last 20 years. The Internet revolution has not stopped creating new solutions and platforms, including those information platforms that are reducing the old corrupt media to dust, such as Elon Musk's X, Chris Pavlovski's Rumble and Pavel Durov's Telegram. In fact, Pavel was arrested in France for allegedly refusing to censor Telegram users' posts and is out on bail, but is prohibited from leaving the country. The new world of communication bothers authoritarian governments so much that threats of censorship are growing around the world and even led me to decide to leave Brazil and open my company in Israel. The old corrupt politicians, like Ometto, bought newspapers that are not even good enough to be used as dog mats, with the dark hope of being able to censor the Internet and social media, and they are working hard to do so. But just look at this revealing example of the impact of new media on the world of communication. Look at the number of followers of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, on Telegram, and the number of followers of the newspaper The Washington Post, on the same platform. Are you ready?

The Washington Post, a bankrupt newspaper bought by Amazon's globalist Jeff Bezos, has only 10% of Trump's followers. Do you think the Post is a "safe" source to talk about Trump? I don't think so!

Want another devastating example?

Check out this chart about influencers who talk about financial investments in Brazil in a survey conducted by the Brazilian Association of Financial and Capital Market Entities. An influencer is someone who specializes in a certain type of content and makes periodic, often daily, publications on their profiles on social media such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, just to name the most used. It has nothing to do with Tik Tok dances. It's a very serious matter.

The audience of just 266 investment influencers already far exceeds the audience of all television channels in Brazil combined. That is why brokerage firms and banks, such as the globalist and corrupt Banco Itaú, run desperate advertising campaigns on TV today trying to discredit these influencers. Yes, on TV, a medium that is not respected by young people. The truth is that old companies don't learn either. And all I can say is: "Thank God they don't learn!"

Now, just look, this chart only shows the strength of the audience of a group of 266 investment influencers in Brazil. Only investments. Now imagine the legion of influencers we have in fashion, gastronomy, religion, cryptocurrencies, startups, technology, medical technology, humor, sexuality, family, motorsports, tourism, Hebrew, English, Russian, German, trekking and healthy eating. Can you imagine? Can you now understand the power of social media when it comes to reaching consumers these days? We are not talking about the mere 60,000 readers of the O Estado de São Paulo, aged over 60. I hope you have clearly understood this scenario, because understanding it can be a salvation for many companies. Including yours.

Despite the attempts to censor and imprison the creators of new media, new information and communication technologies are not going to go away. It is like trying to force people to go back to using typewriters, because computers will be banned. These technologies and some of their sponsors have just elected President Donald Trump to govern America. And we have already seen that Trump returned with an eye patch and a large knife between his teeth. Therefore, companies need to be aware that communication has changed, the users of old media are ceasing to exist and the time has come to revolutionize the way we communicate with customers, employees and society.