Traditional media will be sustained by the strong growth of 50-plus audiences while younger demographic groups move quickly to mobile and new digital formats, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers study. The report forecasts a continued “global broadband boom” and strong growth in mobile, digital cinemas and high definition DVD formats. But PWC also sees “established and traditional business segments” continuing to dominate revenues, except in the music industry. Here’s where older audiences fit in:

Meanwhile, consumers over the age of 50 are creating a balance in the industry by devoting significant amounts of attention to the more traditional media of their generation as the Net Generation drives growth in digital and mobile entertainment. In every region of the world except EMEA, the 50+ population will see double digit growth rates and globally, this population will increase from 1.1 billion to 1.25 billion, a 13.1% rise through 2012. This growth will help sustain traditional formats even as this generation becomes increasingly interested in the platforms embraced by their children and grandchildren.

What’s interesting here is that most traditional media continues to run away from valuable older audiences. In the newspaper industry, innovation is focused exclusively on attracting young audiences to ink-on-paper products via breezy free subway tabloids and flashy graphics. When will publishers figure out that there’s a good 30-year future serving older audiences that can sustain them while they move through the painful economic transition to digital media?

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) confirmed for the first time that it is planning a magazine for older Boomer women, but said the launch is on hold due to the slow economy.  No timeline for launching the new magazine has been announced. The news surfaced in Women’s Wear Daily, which reports that the magazine’s working title is “M.” Earlier reports on this can be found here.

Judging by its programming, I would have guessed PBS already had a pretty good bead on the 50+ audience; the network’s schedule is  packed with Boomer and nostalgia rock music, travel, food and personal discovery shows. But the network seems ready to do more. PBS is launching a new “Public Television 50-Plus Initiative,” according to Paul Kleyman, who writes Age Beat Online, the Newsletter of the Journalists Exchange on Aging. Here’s an edited summary of Paul’s interesting missive on the initiative:

“This is not just an initiative that is a one-year activity we’ll then cycle off into something else; this really should be the basis for the scope of work we should take up for now and the future. So we really should get this as right as we can out of the box.” That was the message Paula Kerger, PBS President and CEO, had for a select group of about 50 leaders in aging and top executives from throughout public television about the system’s new Public Television 50-Plus Initiative.

Speaking at a “summit” held near PBS headquarters in suburban Washington, D.C., in late April, Kerger noted that the system hopes to have as dramatic an impact on raising the quality of programming for older viewers as PBS did on children’s programming. In the next decade, she said, PBS intends to extend its penetration into the same older audience that other entities in broadcasting have long disdained as a liability, those past the vaunted 18-49 age group. Although the 50-Plus Initiative proposal places most emphasis on the boomer generation, it also states that programming will be developed for more senior age groups.

The 50-Plus Initiative, Kerger said, is part of a wider effort to secure the future of PBS and its 355 affiliated stations, while the media world is changing in an “ever complicated, ever fractured manner.”

The 50-Plus Initiative is the brainchild of Jim Pagliarini, president and CEO of Twin Cities Public Television (TCPT), and Judy Diaz, managing director of brand strategy for PBS. With development funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies, they commissioned market research last year showing that “at any given second in primetime, 1.4 million people 50-plus are watching series such as NewsHour, Now and Nova,” according to a summary provided to attendees. At present, according to the PBS study, 89 million people, about 30% of the U.S. population, are 50 or older. Although the research determined that PBS programs already serve its more mature audience, “that content was not consistent or aligned in such a way to realize potentially powerful audience outcomes.”

Wired Magazine for this winner on Jeff Taylor’s plans to launch a standalone website for memorial tributes:

Monster.com Founder Starts Social Networking Site for the Dead

That is just too good to pass up. Anyway, as Wired reports:

Tributes.com is scheduled for a soft launch in June. It aims to provide a central location to house online memorials for those who have passed on. It’s starting with $4.3 million in funding, with The Wall Street Journal as a lead investor.

Jeff is the founder of Eons.com, which had an initial focus on death notices that some found a little creepy. Tributes.com goes down the path pioneered by Legacy.com, which lets the bereaved post online memories of loved ones. Wired also notes that online tributes have taken off at sites like MySpace and Facebook.

A Charlottesville, Virginia publisher has rolled out a local bi-monthly magazine for Boomers in the region, called TheNext50. Publisher Eric Lund told a local newspaper that editorial will be locally-focused, studiously non-senior and that the target is affluent Boomers retiring to the area in growing numbers. These days, it’s great to see new ventures in print (of any kind). Speaking from my own experience launching Satisfaction Magazine in Chicago, readers will love it. But the big challenge will be convincing local advertisers to value a niche market that they will perceive as “old”….no matter how hard you work to frame it as something else. That can make it difficult to attract luxury goods, autos, fashion and high end retail pages. And many advertisers are looking for pure tonnage at the lowest cost in regional markets–not something strategically targeted. On the national level, more advertisers are getting comfortable with the affluent Boomer niche.

But here’s wishing TheNext50 all the best. It would be great to see someone finally crack the code. Initial circulatin is 15,000 and it’s distributed free around the Charlottesville area.

A Dutch organization called Route50Plus launched an ambitious new website this week, Route50plus, with a mission to “track, share and distribute” information and knowledge about the 50+ market globally. The idea here is a B2B resource for marketers focused on 50+ consumers, and we can always use more light in this area. The venture’s interesting group of partners include Plus Magazine, 50 Plus Beurs, SeniorWeb, Nederland Bureau door Tourisme & Congressen, Omroep MAX, De Telegraaf, MediaPlus, and Booming Experience.

The publisher’s description is promising:

On the home page is an agenda with upcoming international events and seminars. At the heart of the site is a digital knowledge centre with the latest news published in both Dutch and English. Content and links can be found from more than 4000 national and international sources. Topics include fifty-plus marketing, media, new products, services, and trends. “This is a website marketers around the world have been waiting for,” said Claudia Biegel, Project Manager of Route 50Plus. “Finally you can find and download the most up-to-date and relevant information about everything concerning the fifty-plus on one comprehensive website.”

Just one problem: all the navigation is in Dutch and the content is a somewhat confusing blend of Dutch and English. This will be a bit of an issue for those non-Dutch speakers out there, of which there are . . . a few.

Suggestion to the publishers: reorganize the site so that visitors can opt for an English or Dutch version.