That word again

So, last week saw the last issue of Rocky Mountain News published. Interestingly, it was covered by all the newspapers that I read (two paper and two online). I have neither lived in Colorado nor have I read the Rocky Mountain News but it felt like a milestone in my life. It appeared to me to say that this is the beginning of the end of newspapers - something that has been so important in my daily life. Maybe, its not. Maybe, it's just one newspaper out of many. But, somehow, I don't think that is the case.

So, what happened? Did Rocky Mountain News just lose relevance? We can look at this in a business context and say that they just were not bringing in the revenue to cover the costs of running the newspaper. Why would that happen? Probably because the advertisers were not spending enough money. And, why would that be? Probably because they were not getting the returns from advertising.

It brings me back to "relevance" and what any business needs to do to stay relevant. In world of media, there is no question that we are at a major turning point, as "traditional" media struggles to stay relevant in a world with an advent of new media - online, mobile, social media. The time each of us has to consume content has not changed that much, but how we consume is changing faster than we can say "relevance".