A Case for Journalism in a Post-Newspaper World

My son wants to be a journalist.  What do I tell him? I feel sick, as if he has told me is going off to war.  He is a journalist for his college newspaper.  He started as a freshman writing pieces, covering whatever he was asked to, a football game, a protest, a concert.  Then, while continuing to write stories, he became a photo editor, and this year he is the video editor for its online edition.  I am of course most excited about this latest “career move” as I believe it may be his saving grace.  But he still wants to work for a newspaper when he graduates.  “Honey,” I say, “you know the newspaper is dying, right?”  He knows this intellectually, but I can see that he still can’t believe it. 

He wants to feel the newsprint, to be part of the unique energy of a newsroom. He is a romantic I suppose.  Also an avid reader, he refuses a Kindle, even for when he is studying abroad—preferring to haul a duffle of books to Buenos Aires.

As his mother, I worry.   I suggest that he is well suited to video journalist, a story teller for the next platform—the newsroom that is evolving.  Or that he will be highly successful as a content creator—creating news and feature stories for branded platforms—be they corporate brands, NGOs, etc.  He has worked for CBS College Sports TV, he has worked for the World Food Programme’s Images group.  He is not naïve.  Yet he still thinks of applying for job at our city newspaper-the one newspaper that is remaining, hanging on by life support.

We live in a time where the journalist must reinvent him or herself, being flexible and yet also holding onto the integrity and urgent place in our society: the Fourth Estate. 

With the evolution of user generated content that is not subject to journalistic ethics or even fact checking, driving news cycles, we need the Fourth Estate more than ever.  But it must take on a different perch.  Those that observe and chronicle and keep a journal on our times can do so from any place or platform.  And if they are clever, wise, thoughtful, interesting, we will continue to turn to them for this. 

News on the other hand has become muddled in currency.  The Wall Street Journal which is famous for its top notch reporters and editors sets it daily editorial direction based on the top topics from its online edition.  So we as readers vote with our click thru every day, and then get to read what is popular in the next day’s edition. 

TMZ, with clearly questionable journalistic ethical standards, has dominated news cycle after news cycle this month with its coverage of Tiger Woods. 

There is such a need for journalists today, great writers who will do what it takes not just to find and tell a story, but to make sure it both correct and well told.  They just need to find a new home, a new place from which to draw readers or viewers as the case seems to be through visual narratives.

We need to ensure that the fine journalists who have lost their jobs with newspapers, can find new work.  And we need to continue to encourage the next generation to want to get out there and be journalists, photo journalists, editors.   The newspaper may be dying, but the act of accurately chronicling our times, reporting, and observing is greatly needed for society to be informed and knowledgeable and progressive.

The Ubiquitous Brand Obama—is it Overexposed?

“Ladies and Gentlemen, our flight is currently circling New York City because President Obama’s in our airspace.” said the pilot of my American flight last Thursday.  President Obama is everywhere.  He is the Eveready Bunny.  He is Forrest Gump.  He is at the Kremlin, then in Rome with the G8 and the Pope, then giving stirring speeches in Ghana.  Suddenly there he is lofting the opening pitch in St. Louis at the All Stars baseball game, and afterwards he is in the TV booth providing color commentary, now he is headed to New York to speak before the NAACP.  He shows up on the cover of Parade for Father’s Day, on CNBC to swat a fly, on Jay Leno.  He is super accessible.  The first family is too.  We see Michelle on a magazine cover every month.  We know what she is wearing, what she is eating, how her garden grows.  Even the girls are visible with their slumber parties and dog walks.  The First Family is ever present in our lives.  President Obama is out there.

What has happened to the usual communications protocols and controls?  We are used to rare sightings tied to well-rehearsed photo ops.  Suddenly we have a President that is totally at ease in the public and seems to love it.  Obama appears confident and in charge, even when it is killing a fly single handedly on national television. On one hand, this is great—here is the Man of the Moment being a Man of the People.  We elected him and he is happy to share with us how he is spending time serving us.  It is good to see him at work.  It is good to know what he is thinking, where he is, who he is meeting with.  It is nice to see his intelligent, lovely wife involved in the larger community and with her family.  It is great to learn what makes them tick.  We are happy to finally have a president with nothing to hide (except the occasional cigarette). 

But, we are only six months into this administration.  What about too much exposure?  We tend to be fickle. We get bored easily.  We like short news cycles.  It’s Susan Boyle (who?) last month, Michael Jackson this one, and we are riveted by the daily news event. It is our natural inclination to build up our heroes and then tear them down.  Frankly, it is getting to be a bit of a joke—where will Obama pop up next?  Is it really him in all these places?  Maybe he has a body double.  Is the Obama brand becoming too ubiquitous? 

Sustainable brands such as Coca Cola or to take an individual, Madonna, have a few things in common:

1. The sustainable brand stays true to its brand essence, or in non-marketing speak, it stays real.  The brand is what it is.
2. The brand remains relevant—it is able transition from generation to generation—without losing their cache, their cool.
3. The brand is more than just the product—it has meaning beyond a can of soda or a performer—it inspires followers, it lives in multiple environments.
4. The brand moves you.  It makes you feel something. 
5. It moves you to act.

Brand Obama has all these qualities.  His brand essence is his essence and while that has evolved, it has not fundamentally changed.  Brand Obama is definite relevant.  His poll number may dip, but he is of keen interest to us.  This brand of man certainly inspires his followers.  He moves people to feel and to act.  He is under our skin. 

Will we tire of Brand Obama a year from now?  Not if he stays on brand and guards the attributes that make him so very compelling (even for those who don’t support his views or politics): his cool, confident demeanor that says “I will take care of it. “  And his open, trusting posture, coupled of course with his amazing ability to seemingly be in three places at once, to swat a fly dead, to dunk a basketball, to get the Kremlin to reduce missiles and to dare to push healthcare reform in the middle of an economic crisis.  If he can keep it up, then we can certainly keep interested.

The Day the News Died

Ninety three percent of the cable news on the day after he died was about Michael Jackson.  His death completely dominated the airwaves, nothing else happened got air time that day.  Not the Iran protests which had capitivated the free world.  The protestors were scuttled away when our watchful eye turned to the almighty Mike.  The health bill debate took a health break, the Honduran coup fled the news, the DOJ’s postponement of the Oracle bid for Sun didn’t even break a headline, and poor Farrah Fawcett died quietly in the shadows in which she lived.  But Michael Jackson emerged from the shadows of his often strange and wonderful life to die huge. 

I guest comment on CNBC and often do a segment called Overplayed/Underplayed stories.  The day of Jackson’s death, that segment was cancelled and I was asked to be yet another talking head about Michael Jackson.  I don’t know Michael, never met him (unlike one of my fellow commentators who had met him once).  I said what everyone was saying–what talent, what a strange but talented individual. 

Today was his memorial service.  No news alert there.  No one is talking about anything else.  We are trying to keep our attention on the significant arms reduction deal that was announced today with Russia by Obama in Moscow.  We gaze a bit at the news that the health care debate is back on.  Yawn.  Will Berlusconi bring a former topless model to the G8 as his date?  Who cares.  Paris Hilton, who?  Paris France, where?  Paris Michael Jackson.  We love you. 

Why do we love this story so very very much.  Admit it you do!  Well, he was the last great big time mega star in a business that is now fragmented and full of little lights.  He was with us for 50 years, but we knew him for most of those.  He grew up in front of us, and then he stayed forever young.  He had scandal all about him.  He married Lisa Marie Presley for god’s sake.  A marriage that her mother, Priscella,  told me made her beyond sad.  (I guess that is my remote brush with MJ fame–I knew his mother-in-law at the time).  Mostly, we can all sing along with MJ.  He is under our skin and it is summer time, after all. 

The news died with Michael for a time, but come Labor Day, we will have rediscovered our more sober, somber, intellectual selves.   So let’s just revel in it for another day.  Watch that video of little Paris one more time and sing an MJ song in the shower tomorrow.

Story telling in the age of twitter

I have been thinking about how we tell stories as I have some client work to do around building a narrative. We assume that the framework for story telling has stayed the same, the way it has been forever. A beginning, a middle, an end. A sense of drama, something that must be overcome and the climatic solution, the happy or unhappy resolution.
I am wondering about this. At the Gates Foundation, we did some research that said that people want to hear that investing in aid or charity works. They don’t want to hear about all the poverty and sickness. So how do you tell that story, without telling the sad part first. It defies our sense of normal story telling.
Then there is the impact of new news slipping into the narrative all the time. Imagine that you are telling a story about something that happened to you yesterday. Along the way, someone interrupts with something related, and then someone else chimes in with something completely random. That is the media environment today–our narrative’s disrupted by incoming twitters or interruptions of some sort, forever altering the storyline.
And who owns a story?  My friend, Rick Smolen of Day in the Life fame, is producing a book that is an Obama time capsule.  I say producing because it is a book that anyone can add to, customize with their own art, impressions, etc.  Each participant owns their own story.  And the collective involvement in this project becomes the story of Obama that we all participate in.

What I am most excited by is this sense that we are all writing and telling stories, each of us adding to other’s narrative.  It is messy, but it is collaborative.  Like the old phone game, a story is always enhanced as it gets passed along.

Vanity Fares Poorly in the Recession

My July issue of Vanity Fair arrived yesterday.  I love Vanity Fair for its smart, interesting profiles, gorgeous photography and for the pages and pages of lush advertising.  It is always like a trip to Europe first class.  Something was different this time.  There was the irreverant, sensual Johnny Depp on the cover, but the magazine felt flimsy in my hands.  I opened it up.  There were all the features, the various columns and frothy little bits.  But where were all the advertisements?  Where are the pages of Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, Chloe and Burberry.  Where is BMW?  Tiffany?  Absolut? David Yurman?  They are all gone.  200 pages of advertising disappered.  I found the March issue lying around, all 332 pages of it.  The july issue is only 128 pages.   The luxury goods world has packed up its ad budgets into their Louis Vuitton trunks and put them storage.  Watch this space….

Can the new Music Industry Business Model work for News Media?

Last week at the All Things Digital: D conference hosted by Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, music mogel Irving Azoff talked about how the business model for the music industry today. Artists (and presumably their labels, managers, etc.) no longer make money off the release of their actual music. The money is made off their live shows, their merchandising, etc. The digitization of music and downloading has not killed the music business but it has reshaped it immensely. It is not about the product, but the packaging and distribution. Azoff stressed that music artists must be brands, with a capital B.

This is really interesting to think about in terms of the news content business. I wrote before about the power of the journalist brand and that the journalists who can really brand themselves and drive a following will be highly successful irregardless of the specific platform (newspaper, blog, broadcast outlet, etc.) that they live on. This means that charging for content by the word, the piece, the soundbite can be viable for the masses of content players, but for the journalist rock stars, they will make their fame and fortune based on the ancilliary revenues tied to their brand power.

So, if I go back to the All Things Digital event. This is a big money maker. It charges $4,500+/attendee for essentially a day and a half conference. There are over 600 people and a dozen sponsors who contribute as much as $250,000. It makes money for the WSJ, and it builds brand awareness for its stars: Kara and Walt. Or consider Fortune’s Pattie Sellers who is the star of its Most Powerful Women’s Summit. This event attracts the top 300 women in the world, it is tied into Fortune coverage, and has taken on almost a movement stature. It has made Pattie Sellers a strong brand with women. So if these are examples of the live show aspect of the music model. These events work, they are the rock concerts of business. They make money, they build a following, a fan base of sorts.
What next–merchandising?

Personality Brands: what drives success

I recently wrote the following comment in response to a blog on HuffPost from Suzanne Aaronson.

A personality brand requires a strong point of view. It can’t just be a lifestyle brand that is a collection of aggregated content, gathered products and edited by others. What makes a Martha Stewart or Oprah successful are three elements:
1. Longevity. As Suzanne Aaronson points out (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-aaronson/personality-driven-media_b_203492.html) these women started this in a small way decades ago and evolved.
2. Multi-platform brands. Any strong brand relies on a multi-channel distribution strategy. So too a personality brand particularly a media brand since media is temporal. Books, magazines, television and the internet all build off each other, creating a layered embrace to the market.
3. Point of View. A media brand must have a point of view, a strong edit. We want to subscribe to Martha’s verson of home making, or Oprah’s taste in books and products. The consumer is signing up for advice with each of these icons. While over time, others can replicate Martha or Oprah and help sustain their point of view editorially, in the beginning it took a lot of their personal touch on everything. And one would argue that they continue to have dominant hand in every little detail of their brand today.
There is definitely room for more personality brands, but the personalities must adhere to these three principals and invest the time and heart to over the long haul to make it successful.

Leaning West against a Recession

Have you noticed that while things are just as bad in California or Nevada or Washington, no one is talking about it except the media?  The recession is NOT the topic of lunch or dinner or party talk.  There is no bemoaning it.  There is a practical discussion around decisions and actions.  For example, I was at a fundraising benefit in LA on Tuesday night.  Not one mention.  I was then at a philanthropic luncheon yesterday in Seattle.  Not a word.  And in the hotels and casinos of Las Vegas, you would never know there is a recession.  Of course there is and some of these places are more impacted than east of the Mississippi, but there is something about Westerners–we just get on with it.  May be it is the pioneering spirit, or the frontier lack of lip.   Whatever it is, the Left Coast just puts its head down and leans a shoulder into difficulty. 

On the otherhand, I have been in NY a bit recently and there is nothing else to talk about.  Quite depressing, but again, I think that it is so very NY to talk it thru, to have a great collective angst.  I explained this recently to a very sophisticated fund manager from Switzlerland.  He was under the impression that there was no recession in California because he had come in from NY and had heard so much about it there and then nothing, absolutely no talk about it in San Francisco.  I explained that we are as different on the West Coast as the Swiss are from the Spanish.  He got that!

Media Mud Wrestling

I was on Dennis Kneale’s CNBC Reports show Friday night.  I have prepped so many executives for this kind of appearance, but it is incredibly useful to experience it first hand.  There is a certain amount of prep that you can do.  You need to know a few points, stories, etc. that you absolutely need to get out.  But the most important preparation is that you must be able to be absolutely comfortable with the quick wit, the fast comment, the aggressive verbal body check.  Personally, for a well-brought up woman, I loved it.  It was absolutely a down in the dirt scene of verbal sparring and wrestling.  Check it out!

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1111013412&play=1

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1111171524&play=1

Bye Bye New York Times

Today, I cancelled my long held subscription to the New York Times.  Well, I held onto Sunday because there is nothing like lingering over the New York Times on Sunday.  My recycle bin will be less over flowing, my morning less hurried, and my fingers less ink stained.  But I will still get my news every day.  In fact when I called to cancel, the clerk couldn’t have been nicer.  He clearly has never worked at AOL (remember the super long and incredibly funny Youtube clip of a guy trying to cancel his AOL account–22 minutes worth of avoiding the cancellation request).  In fact, he cheerfully told me, ” and you can of course read it all for free every day on line.”  Which I will do tomorrow.