Go Digital: Advice for the 17,809 Old-Media Folks Cut in 2006

Last year, according to executive search firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, media layoffs in 2006 were 88 percent higher than in 2005.  Most of these cuts were, no newsflash, in old media.  Think Time Inc and The New York Times Inc.  The exact number of those who got the ax in 2006 adds up to 17,809, versus 9,453 in 2005. 

This sorry situation doesn't have to stay sorry.  Those 17,809 can do what I was forced to do in 2003 when my old-media boutique tanked. 

Here is the seven-step plan to recovery:

• Forget sunk costs, that is all the experience, contacts developed, and track record in old media.  That's over.  No one cares.  You better not either.  Instead you got to develop a new narrative or personal branding, as Tom Peters calls it.  And it has to be digital.  Re-frame old-media credentials into new-media terminology and concepts.  For instance, "speechwriting" can become "coaching executives in the conversational tone of social media."

• Grab a survival job or, if your financial situation is really dicey, two.  Money, even a little money coming in, reduces panic.  In "Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin & End" by Harvard Business professor Rosabeth Kanter fingers panic as the primary reason downward spirals start and continue.  Confidence sets in motion the beginning of the new beginning.  Survival jobs range from selling used Toyotas in Westport, Connecticut to being a loss-prevention contract employee in Home Depot.

• Spend six hours a day keying in on the web terms like "social media," "integrated communications," "digital communications," and "web 2.0."  Read and digest the content that pops up.  This will help you migrate to new space. Go to the bookstore and start building a library of books about digital communications such as "Naked Conversations" by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel and "The Wealth of Networks" by Yachai Benkler.

• Start a blog with Typepad.com.  It only costs five bucks monthly and, again, gets you into new space.  Progress on the learning curve takes about three months but, not to worry, you have a survival job or two, right.  Having a blog is the new cost of entry.  And while you're blogging your heart out, learn about bells and whistles such as video feeds and digital photos. Will this be exhausting? Yes, the new economy hath murdered sleep.

• Ditch your old-media network and search for a new-media one.  That can be done by finding a ListServe in new media.  For example, by joining the American Marketing Association, you get as a benefit membership on a ListServe such as that dealing with the Internet.  Lurk in the background until you become comfortable in this territory.  Membership in the AMA also gives you free access to web-seminars on new media.

• Remember that regrets are a number-one obstacle to reinventing yourself efficiently and effectively.  The productive way to move on from what was and what is is to position previous decisions as necessary learning experiences.  In "Wake Up To Your Life," Ken McLeod observes that loss brings enlightenment.  Without this current loss and what led up to it, you wouldn't be as shrewd, flexible and self-protective as you are now, would you.  The odds are that eventually your career path will be better than it had been.  You're a new improved you.

• It's not a bad idea to scoop up an internship in new media.  You can find them on Mediabistro.com (subscription-based).  Or, as in the old days, get a menial job in a new-media company that will immerse you in the digital paradigms of the 21st century.

The very good news is that current communications strategies and tactics integrate old and new media.  For instance, the pros are saying that the advertisers on the old-media SuperBowl will reinforce their message with new media.  So much of what we used to do in old media is still done in packaging solutions for clients in a digital era.

FAQs:

How long does it take to pull this off?  About 18 to 24 months.

Will I match my former compensation?  In time, you may do much better.

How do I recover from the "shame" of crashing? Shame is an emotional luxury no one can afford.  Re-frame that as determination for a comeback.

Can I let up for a day or two on this relentless re-tooling for a digital era?  You have to since the new media are so intensive.  Force yourself, for example, to shut the computer down periodically and do something else, even laundry.

Comments

[shel israel]

Jane,

Thanks for the kins words about the book. I would like to poinbt out that my name is Shel, not Seth as you often call me. Seth is the bald guy who writes aboutpurple cows and lying marketers.