How do you reach someone who’s fixated on print publications, and a digital nomad who’ll only scan the headline and the first few sentences of your story, online? What happens when both these people constitute your target demographic?

Johna Burke, VP of BurrellesLuce pried open that black box at the IABC Phoenix lunch seminar this afternoon. The “Four Generations” approach to media measurement means the Gen Xers and Millennials have to be reached –and tracked– in the same sweep as the Traditional and the Boomers.

It means PR practitioners and communicators should start paying attention to the core values, and what make these audiences tick. It’s not just about targeting (for marketing) but engaging them (for internal communications.) Media measurement is a “good pulse check” to understand how to best reach and manage these diverse generations, said Burke. For Millennials for instance, she recommends managers personalize their work and even their benefits package because one size does not fit all in their world. There were lots of other insights about measuring the outcomes based on this approach and the metrics.

Sidebar: There were echoes of the ‘social technographic profile‘ made popular by Forrester analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff in their blog, and their book, Groundswell.

If you are interested, a condensed version of Johna’s presentation, “Four Generations of Audience, Four Generations of Media–One Approach to Media Measurement,” can be found at Bulldog Reporter.