Mark Cuban said something Friday that really struck home for me.  Writing about the struggles of promoting movies through traditional newspaper and magazine channels, he tells those industries:

Each of us is looking for the  holy grail of promotion.  A way to leave you as a customer.

How scary is that ? A huge customer of your industry would prefer not to do business with you.

I think the same can be said for most people who deal with lawyers.  If there is a real alternative to using lawyers, how many of our clients would jump at the opportunity?  What are we going to do about it?

Mark’s advice to the magazine and newspaper businesses:

So its time to buck up. You either squeeze what you can and cry when it happens, or you step up and create cost effective alternatives.  The days of a movie review and the ad for the movie wont cut it for much longer. 

So those of you in the entertainment sections and sales groups of newspapers and magazines have two choices, come up with new ideas, or a new version of your resume…

I have some more thoughts on this issue and will share them soon.