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Kirk Citron makes an excellent case for the Long News: What news will really matter to us in the long run? As he points out, we are drowning in a sea of information. Reuters puts out 3.5 million news stories a year! People used to get their news in a trickle – the daily newspaper, the television evening news, and the weekly newsmagazine. However, the trickle is now a 24-hour, full-on fire hose. In addition, “news” has expanded, via sources such as Twitter and Foursquare, to things as mundane as what someone is having for lunch and where they are having it.

Citron, and the Long Now Foundation, point out that people are being driven to a “pathologically short attention span,” and that very little of the news reported will matter a year…10 years…50 years…a 100 years from now or more.

There appears to be a corollary here for marketers. We are also drowning in a sea of marketing information and it is becoming increasingly difficult to get the buyer’s attention. People can only assimilate so much, and it begs the question: What is the information that is really important to your prospects and customers? What information will matter when they make a purchase decision? So much marketing content is drivel and filler. People deserve, and will demand, better. Companies that learn how to treat attention as the precious resource it is will win the race. It starts by replacing the drivel and filler with something useful and engaging.