We DESERVE To Be Ranked High on Google

This is clearly the biggest WTF story from last week:

Media Giants Want to Top Google Results
The gripe? Apparently most of our beloved media giants, such as ESPN and The New York Times, don't like how Google arrives at page rank. After all, "We're bigger!" is essentially the argument. We ought to be ranked higher, right?

This is so indicative of the old thinking that is slowly killing these companies. It's why I wrote this post yesterday about why newspapers are dying. They just don't get that being "big" is not the key to success anymore. Being relevant is. And until they adjust their outlook and become relevant, they will be unable to compete in the changing landscape of how we consume media.

And the ignorant thinking was not confined to just the media giants yesterday. The agency world launched a foolhardy volley as well, with this opinion piece from Mike Huges, President and Creative Director at The Martin Agency.

Mike's thought? That somehow we, the agencies and marketers of the world, are to blame for the demise of newspapers. That somehow because newspapers have fallen out of vogue among us, we aren't running ads. Therefore, to quote him, if the newspapers all die, "...we'll have no one to blame but ourselves."

Excuse me? You mean all it will take to solve dwindling readership, rising paper costs, irrelevant content and the presence of Craig's List is to run a few ads? I try to stay away from writing attack posts, but this opinion is so far removed from reality it demands to be called to the mat. This is a Band-Aid fix, Mike. It does not solve the deeper problem, that newspapers are not looking hard enough to completely reinvent themselves. And that future simply may not include dead trees.

It's time for all the media giants of old to start playing the cards that have been dealt. It's time to stop living in the past and start playing by the new rules if these companies hope to survive. And the solutions won't be found in demanding higher page ranks or running a few more newspaper ads.

Image: Will Video For Food