-By Lucia Moses

There’s a digital divide among print media executives when it comes to rating their own companies’ new-media strategies, new Forrester Consulting survey reveals.
 
Less than half of execs surveyed feel their employers are aggressively investing in new media, says the survey, due out Oct. 26. Only 12 percent described their companies as very aggressive.
 
Forrester conducted the online survey in September for Zeta Interactive, a digital marketing firm. Forrester polled 150 respondents from a cross-section of industries that are heavy print users, primarily retail and publishing.
 
Asked about their challenges in pursuing a digital publishing strategy, respondents listed budget constraints and low end-user adoption as their top concerns (41 percent and 38 percent, respectively).
 
At the same time, online ad spending will overtake print five years from now, the study indicates. Print media decision-makers surveyed predicted their marketing budgets would be split 60/40 online/print by then, from 70/30 print/online split today.
 
Al DiGuido, CEO, Zeta Interactive, said the survey shows a clear need for print media to catch up to consumer behavior.
 
“We’ve felt as if a lot of people in the media world were denying the shift of consumers from offline to online,” said Al DiGuido, CEO, Zeta Interactive. “This shift has definitely occurred. I think there’s a sense that eventually people will move back to print. I think the opposite is true.”