Welcome to a new week in the new media world. Let’s start it off with a couple of tidbits that should interest any agrimarketer. First of all, let’s look at broadband penetration. A report from Gartner shows that consumers with broadband is going to continue to grow and some are saying that will create a larger audience than traditional broadcast outlets.

Worldwide consumer broadband connections will grow from 323 million connections in 2007 to 499 million in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide consumer broadband connections penetrated 18 percent of households in 2007, and by 2012, households with a broadband connection will reach 25 percent.

The report says that 5 countries already exceed 60% penetration and by 2012, 17 countries will. The report says that broadband penetration in the United States is 54% as of 2007 and is projected to increase to 77% by 2012.

Since we’re projecting out, let’s also consider the age demographics of who is online. I keep hearing people who should know better tell me that all this “internet stuff” is just young people. Of course those of us 50+ know better. The facts speak for themselves and we’re looking at a Boomer generation that’s moving into senior status and as a report on eMarketer puts it, “They’ll be bringing their technology with them.”

Baby boomers may bristle at being called “seniors,” but the generation is huge in numbers and promises to be a rich audience for all sorts of online services—with evolving needs.

For online retailers, one way to please older consumers without boring younger ones is to create a niche site.

Increased broadband use and older people online. Now what should you be thinking of when you’re plotting communications strategies?