The rate of profit is falling for USA corporates (see EUI: 40% risk of recession in the United States by Robin Bew).
It doesn’t take a genius to predict there will be a (further) spending squeeze for most companies.
How will that translate to online channels?
Websites and the bits of them that don’t directly generate income or can’t demonstrate return on investment will be the first to get axed (shiver all those people who have spuriously demonstrated return through citing piss poor or inflated performance indicators).
Not a good story for corporate communcations departments that often *own* the websites that are the toughest to justify financially, and who are often responsible for bloated sites with content that no one’s requested since the ice age.
Legally required and relevant content (financial information, company information, relevant press content) should move up the priority list, overtaking pointless marketing information, self promoting bios, badly written puff, and other content with no demonstrable purpose for the company or its customers.
Downturns are never welcome, but take an opportunity when it’s offered to weed out and turn off websites that are just rubbish but have been thus far protected by hierarchical authority.
NB. #1: Talking of puff, I hope the following quote from The Economist about mission statements makes it into a thousand PowerPoint presentations:
“…the average company’s mission statement, packed with a muddle of words and thoughts tied to stakeholders and CSR, that employees can barely read, let alone memorise.”Mao and the art of management, Dec 19th 2007, From The Economist print edition
Exactly.
NB. #2: Today’s prize for mission-speak goes to:
“The uniqueness in Vestergaard Frandsen is represented by people with imagination, and the passion, precision and speed to bring that imagination to life. We call it imagineering!”
