Every now and then, I drop by Web Digest for Marketers to see what’s on Larry Chase’s mind. I’ve never worked in marketing or marcom, but it’s hard to deny that—at least in terms of the channels we use—marketing and PR are joined at the hip.

On my last visit, I found Chase has posted his “Top 10 Trends for the Next 10 Years..” Personally, I’m reluctant to prognisticate two years out. For example, who would have predicted 18 months ago that podcasting would be a major trend? It didn’t even exist before last August. (Take a look at Neville’s post today to see exactly what’s expected of podcasting as it continues to build momentum.)

Still, Chase’s list is intriguing because of the items that synch nicely with the themes raised by the PR blogging community in the last year or so. For example (what follows are directly quoted from Chase’s list):

• 2. Feed Marketing Flourishes: You’ve got RSS (Real Simple Syndication). You’ve got Podcasting (where you can download and time-shift audio content to your iPod or MP3 player). Now you’ve even got Video Podcasting where you can download MP4 videos into Sony’s PlayStation Portable unit for viewing when you’re mobile. As the use of RSS grows quickly, and more consumers buy iPods or MP3 players, these formats will grow in usage. And where there are ears and especially eyeballs, marketers are never too far behind.
• 5. Reverb Marketing, In Stereo: eMarketer points out that many Internet users already use multiple forms of media at once. Even as I write this I’m listening to CNBC in the background. Smart marketers will synchronize their messaging so the end user hears and sees complementary messages at or near the same time.
• 6. Blogs Go Multimedia: Blogs are obviously here to stay. Some of the cutting-edge blogs are starting to offer content in audio and even in video. This will not only affect journalism, but it will impact the retail business as well.
• 9. Publishing Faces Tectonic Shifts: Research is already showing that many people in their 20s are not picking up the newspaper habit the way their parents did. Add to this demographic shift the cost of newsprint, postage (for magazines) and handling, and it’s likely to cause tectonic shifts in the publishing industry. Many people already read newspapers and magazines online. My bet is that special issues will appear in print, and that many publishers will ultimately have to figure out how to make a go of it with fr** content online (i.e., advertiser-supported), perhaps by asking their readers for demographic information that enables the publisher to sell targeted advertisements at a premium, as you’ll frequently find with trade publications.

Whether these trends will hold up over 10 years remains to be seen. More likely, new trends will emerge that we can’t even begin to imagine today. The full list is worth reading, though. While the trends may not last a decade, they’re certainly true today.