2008 served as the “year of the plunge” for many different components of the advertising world, but the “plunge of all plunges” was in the newspaper medium. The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) released some figures on overall domestic print revenue for the 2008 year, and let’s just say that things aren’t looking too pretty.

Overall ad revenue has dropped for the third consecutive year, while sales plummeted approximately 23%. Real estate and automotive decreased a respective 37.8% and 29.1% as a result of both struggling industries. But the “drop of all drops” was in help-wanted ad revenue, which decreased an astronomical 42.5% solely within the 2008 year.

Though online ad revenue withstood the whirlwind at only a 1.8% decline, this is still considered a huge hit to the newspaper medium, considering that previous years indicated double-digit revenue increases.

So now that the disastrous year of 2008 has come and gone, what’s to come for the remainder of 2009?

A Deloitte study says that the newspaper medium’s outlook has gone from “difficult” to “impossible,” so don’t expect any major revelations in the industry to occur anytime soon.

Jill Abramson, managing editor of the New York Times, stopped in at NYU the other week to talk about the strength of print journalism. She seemed optimistic about the future of her industry, saying, “Call newspapers dinosaurs if you like, but remember that dinosaurs roamed the Earth for millions of years.”

And while that’s a valid point, the dinosaurs had their day to roam the earth. But now, they’re extinct.

As it stands, newspapers across the country are scaling back production. Local papers are reducing service from five days a week to three, and the majority of papers are cutting down on jobs. So where are advertisers going now that newspapers are scaling back?

Medium components that indicated increasing ad revenue in the first quarter of 2006 were as follows: the Internet, up 16.7%; direct mail, up 4.5 %; magazines, up 4.1%; the yellow pages, up 2%; and cable TV networks, up 1.4%.” Notably absent from that list? Newspapers.

If the Internet was the future in 2006, then how is that panning out in today’s media market?

Pretty well, apparently. Autotrader.com announced that it received record traffic in March 2009 at approximately16 million unique hits, as opposed to the 14 million unique hits it received in February of 2009. The numbers make sense; people are turning to the Internet for information and news, and advertisers are capitalizing on this.

Digital media is another advertising medium that is on the rise. Search terms, which bolster the number of times a particular brand is shown in search results, were predicted to experience a growth of $1.7 billion in 2008.

Social networking, while already popular among the younger demographic, is experiencing a surge of popularity from businesses who realize its potential to reach out to customers via sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Mobile media is also incorporating these digital elements into a more personal branding experience, as more and more phones are becoming Internet capable. In terms of numbers, mobile media experienced a 30% jump in unique personal Internet users throughout the course of 2008.

These trends strongly suggest that new mediums are evolving, while the “newspaper dinosaur” is becoming increasingly more obsolete.

2008 served as the explosion of a new digital marketing era that is becoming increasingly more prominent as the months progress. And while the digital era provides marketing techniques that can really maximize your firm’s ROI, traditional media still serves as a foolproof method of targeting local consumers.

So which traditional media types could still work for the local business realm? For starters, here are a few:

Newspaper Coupons

While true that the newspaper medium is on a rapid decline, it’s not dead in the water yet. Because newspaper advertising is relatively cheap, especially in this economy, using coupon ads in your area’s local paper can be a great way to reach customers and generate traffic into your store.

Cable TV

If running newspaper coupons isn’t your cup of tea, cable advertising also has its perks. Cable advertising is a cost-effective method of TV advertising that allows you the flexibility of zeroing in on any specific target audience within your area. Many local advertising stations will also create your ad for free or at a fairly small cost.

Yellow Pages

A study by Forrester Research finds that for 74 percent of offline consumers and 66% of online consumers, Yellow Pages directories are a preferred choice for customers that seek specific products and services.

Door Hangers

An often-forgotten form of print media is the door hanger. Door hangers are incredibly cheap and can serve as a great way to get your business’s name out to the community to drive locals into your store. Members of a community are enthusiastic about helping out the local businesses in their community, so distributing door hangers to homes in your area can be a good way to inform locals about your business.

Websites

Designing a user-friendly website is another great way for consumers to find out more information about your business and drive more consumers to your store, especially since approximately 74.4 percent of North Americans are connected to the Internet. Customers rely on your website for additional information and to learn about your business before visiting your store.