To borrow from Ross Perot’s 1992 Presidential Election Campaign, “That giant sucking sound your hear…” is the Print Industry succumbing to modern day competition and a brutal advertising slump.

MediaDailyNews reports today that the news just keeps getting worse for the Magazine Industry. Today’s rundown of bad news follows similar recent bad news for the Newspaper Industry. Just last week St. Petersburg Times Media Critic Eric Deggans blogged about “more bad news for the newspapers” citing declining circulation figures for newspapers for the six months ending September 2008.

There is no doubt that the print journalism industry is suffering. Newspapers have seen key revenue streams vanish as a result of Internet Job Boards, Craig’s List and other Internet news providers to name a few. As Mr. Deggans noted, circulation figures are in a downward spiral. A common criticism of the industry is that newspapers failured to embrace the Internet and create new models and business partners before online job boards stole the recruitment business and Craig’s List decimated the classified advertising business. Newspaper’s did not police customer dissatisfaction. The industry is now embracing just those kind of partnerships in an effort to halt their death spiral. It is difficult to tell how much of that spiral can be arrested at this point.

So what does this mean to you and your business? It is a painful (for newspapers) reminder that the customer is king. You can never take your customer for granted or assume that you control your business. The simple truth is that your customer makes the decision to be a consumer or not. They control your business. If you are not looking ahead, evaluating the needs and wants of your customers, you are in the process of losing them to someone who is paying attention to what they seek. ..and that giant sucking sound will be your customers.

- Bob Linger; “No one buys anything they don’t want or need. Businesses have either to provide what customers want or need, or to demonstrate to customers why they might want or need their product or service”

Everyone knows the dollar isn’t what it used to be. We are reminded nearly every day as we buy fuel for our cars, groceries, pay the bills, you name it. Our money just doesn’t go as far as we would like it to, or that we remember from the “good old days.” But if you really want to know how inflation has impacted your spending power, this handy calculator will let you know what your current salary was worth in the past or is likely to be worth in the future. Caution, you may need an airline vomit bag for this exercise.