Podcasting. RSS. Blogging. Vlogging. WOM. Viral marketing. Wallpaper. How many of these do you recognize? How many of them are recognizable to marketers and media providers? And yet, these are the some of the newest trends in advertising and marketing. To give you an idea of how fast things change these days, some of these terms are already verging on becoming passé, even before many people have heard of them.

Marketers, advertisers, and publishers, and other content providers have been wrestling with an increasingly diverse media mix. Two major consequences are the growing trend toward entirely on-demand content and increasing audience fragmentation. What does a diverse media mix mean for the concept of “mass media”? Is there even such a thing any longer? What are the consequences of this media mix for those who develop content? What strategies have they been implementing? What strategies should they be implementing?

We looked at these issues in “The Multichannel Mix: The Role of Print, Web, Wireless, and Other Platforms in Today’s New Media Environment,” a series of special reports that examines the consequences of this new media mix on The Industry Measure’s (formerly TrendWatch GA’s) regularly surveyed graphic arts markets. “Part I: Publishing” looks at these issues from the perspective of book, magazine, and catalog publishers. Future reports—and, therefore, future What They Think columns—will detail the effects of the media mix on ad agencies, graphic designers, Internet developers, and even printers.