Firstly, I would like to start by pointing out an excellent round up of the world of marketing and media in 2007 by Marketing Week.

Looking ahead to 2008, I’ve no doubt that the social networking revolution is set to continue, but I’m not convinced that the ’big three’ - MySpace, Facebook and BEBO –will repeat the stellar performances of 2007. They’ll still be here, obviously, at the end of 2008, but I think that they will see their user numbers plateau then slowly drop back, due to the increase of specialized networking sites such as LinkedIn. Similar trends can be seen in well-established web 2.0 sites such as Flickr.com.

In 2008, I believe that broadcasting will increasingly concentrate on national affairs and also that we’ll see a return to drama / documentary-focused broadcasting, as this will provide material that can be easily and lucratively sold overseas.

There’s likely to be a bit of gap in regional media; ITV has already started to pull out of the regional marketplace. I personally believe that budding local bloggers will be filling the void left by nationally-focused local media. A perfect example of this is the People’s Republic of South Devon, a local views, news and events site that is gaining a lot of momentum in the region.

Finally, I predict that regional / city-based media groups such as Northcliffe (who own most of Bristol’s print media, for example), Trinity Mirror and Newsquest will face increasing competition on the web from local bloggers; alternative opinions are sure of a warm welcome in towns which have only one newspaper. How the wheels turn! Ironically, the big media groups, who tried to squeeze out the competition - which found itself faced by huge marketing and set-up spend - are now the slow-moving goliaths of the media world contending with innovative, controversial and entertaining blogs where the start-up involves just a PC , free blog software and an opinion.

A great example of this firebrand journalism is the Bristol Blogger the site has a high profile in the city and claims to have more readers than Northcliffe’s very own Venue magazine, circa 7,000 readers a week!

Food for thought over the Christmas period….

The South West of England seems not too far away from London on the global map, but it is in fact one of the largest regions in the UK and has a similar land mass to Scotland. A journey from Bristol to Penzance will take up to 6 hours!

Many journalists and industry contacts based in the South East, find industry showcases in the South West increasing difficult to reach, due to transport problems and hectic work schedules.

Montage has overcome this by releasing PR materials along with online video links to make sure that as many industry influencers and journalists alike do not miss key events on behalf of our clients.

Another compelling reason to use online video or audio communications is to assist "cosmopolitan participation" across the world rather than just focusing on regional media, in order to disseminate ideas and research.

For an example please click on the link to watch Dr James Marsden, from the Altas of Ideas present his findings on the emerging Biotechnology and innovation based markets around the world. His compelling presentation was watched by 50 delegates and will be shown to 1000's more due to this technology.

Click on the video link.

For the press release on the BioApproaches South West, Gala Dinner, featuring 50 of the UK's leading Bioscience representatives please click on the press release link.