Julie Bosman writing in the New York Times (mirrored at MSNBC) writes about the inability for “new media” to reach voters in Iowa.

“It’s clearly true,” said Joe Trippi, a senior adviser to former Senator John Edwards, “that blogs and Web sites, and even some of the cool stuff that our team is doing in Iowa, has got less of an impact in Iowa.”

The article notes the older population in Iowa as one of the reasons why new media might not be reaching older voters but to be honest, I believe Iowa is a pretty good reflection of the impact nationally. Overall the article also notes my own general idea of what this “new media” is used for around the country. Basically building up buzz and filtering information into traditional media, not necessarily directly reaching voters.

At the end of the day let’s face facts here. The number of friends a candidate has on MySpace and Facebook will undoubtedly have no relationship to the number of votes they receive. Will it effect fundraising? Of course. Will it help organize efforts? Definitely. Will my parents and grandparents who are the most likely to vote in droves be influenced directly by Internet votes? Nope.

So though its 100% necessary for every campaign to have an online presence I see with Obama & Edward’s the consequence of relying too much on that medium to reach real voters. Both have raised money, both have caused “buzz” but both are trailing in polling and falling behind in MSM influence.

If I had any advice for Edward’s & Obama it would be this. It’s time to stop worrying about Facebook, MySpace, blogs and Adwords and time to start getting into television, radio and courting influence with journalists in Iowa, New Hampshire and nationally.