Way back in March I wrote a post contemplating the future of social media in midst of a collapsing economy . At that time, the economy was showing it’s first signs of instability. For the most part, the public was unaware of the road ahead. While most people are still unaware of what still lies ahead for the economy , they are certainly more cogniscent of what is going on with the markets in virtual free fall. So are bloggers.

Enter several blog posts from the folks in new media that echo what I said back in March. One in particular is Gary Vanynerchuk . He recorded this a few days ago .

Companies need to be in the business of optimizing their marketing, not in the business of keeping traditional media funded. Gary is absolutely right that traditional media is going to suffer in a big way. The spread of online media in conjunction with the economic downturn equates to bad news for traditional media. I certainly don’t see TV and radio going away, but this monstrous economic correction is going to REQUIRE these media channels to drastically change their paradigms. This includes many personnel cuts. With many friends in traditional media, this certainly scares me, and why it’s even more important to increase your value by leading the way in their outlet’s online and social media engagement if you are in that space.

The Christmas selling season is already upon us, and companies likely committed their dollars to tradtional media outlets before the market crash. It’ll be interesting to see how 2009 progresses as the shift gets into full swing.