One of my new favorite blogs is by Netscape Founder Marc Andreessen. As I was reading a few post today I stumbled on his post called “Left unchecked, this could become problematic” in which Marc highlights the decline in revenue for print, online and classified advertising, suggesting this could be a problem in the years to come.

I’m not sure I agree with Marc on this issue. I’m encouraged by the decrease in traditional advertising because it suggests to me a few things:

1. People are tired of the old media advertising ways. We are skipping commercials, blocking ads and using Craigslist for our classifieds.
2. Smart companies are avoiding traditional advertising and looking for creative ways to reach their audience, consumer and markets.

Perhaps rather then worrying about the decline in advertising we should be looking at it as a shift in thinking. Maybe we’ve reached a tipping point and this downturn in the traditional ways is the mark of something new, better and different. I think the book “Punk Marketing” does an excellent job at discussing the future of advertising and Marc’s recent article is just another indicator that the shift is underway.