We’re seeing the fall of the newspaper, but we’re also seeing a rise in reporting. As more and more industries begin to publish their own news and become sources of information for their customers, are newspapers partially getting shoved aside because their customers are looking elsewhere?

Marketers are building sophisticated communities online, and they’re largely centered on the exchange of information. Blogs and other tools have helped companies build huge audiences that draw more and more people by word of mouth. That means the better a media outlet a company becomes, the less hard it has to work to earn the attention of their ideal consumer.

Consumers are also becoming media sources themselves, rating and commenting on their favorite products and customer experiences. A company that treats a customer poorly can no longer disregard it if that customer also happens to be the head of a popular blog.

Brands that become their own media companies have certain challenges ahead of them. In order to keep the eyes and ears of their customers, they have to continue to create interesting and effective new media, a task that used to be relegated to news industries. Communities without causes often dissolve, however, and unless brands put effort into putting new media in front of them, they can’t enjoy the benefits of a word of mouth audience.

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