Rupert Murdoch sez blog, podcast and web or die

Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. (Fox News, satellite deliverer around the world, newspaper publisher AND owner of myspace.com) is quoted in a Businessweek article as telling his newspaper peeps to give readers paperless content or be ready to pass from existence.

"Rupert Murdoch has warned the media's old guard to 'change or die' in the new age of media, where demanding readers want to consume a media pick 'n' mix - and are just as keen on getting news through paper and ink as on their iPod. "

It should be noted that Mr. Murdoch just celebrated his 75th birthday on March 11.

In a bit of twisted irony, my son is home from college on spring break this week. Much our time as a family has been spent watching the short live FOX TV series "Firefly." The series was canceled with only 13 or 14 episodes in 2002 - created by Joss Whedon of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel." The recent motion picture "Serenity" was a remarkable, belated return of the cast and storyline for many avid fans.

It is a fascinating look at the future where the earth has gone kaput, humans have spread out to other star systems planets and moons, "terraforming" what planetoids they find to make them livable - blending old tech (horses, cattle, etc) with spaceships and amazing future tech. On a raw, new planet, a horse needs less maintenance and is easier to fuel than, say, a car.

What is ironic to me -- in the episode we watched last night, a flashback scene with two characters who have become fugitives in the show. In the scene, these two gifted and remarkble adults are shown as children, with their dad coming home from a long day work. He sits down in their family room to talk with the kids and read.

What is he about to read? A tabloid-style newspaper.

Shiny.

myspace and the Daily Show

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is a great place to pick at most any convention...even social networking.

For as much as we want to reach "the youth," this is a nice reminder to explore and embrace new and interesting things, but hold on to some perspective, too!

Media today - more outlets - fewer reporters

In a somewhat chilling read from Tuesday's Media Notes column from the Washington Post, Howard Kurtz comments on the loss of journalists likely out of the sale of Knight-Ridder this week. He also notes the reduction in force of 80 journalism positions (about 10%) from the Washington Post itself. While the Post says the staff cuts will be from attrition, buyouts and retirement, this is following on the heels of an earlier reduction in force at the WP.

BTW - the Post is ALSO planning to increase the workload of some of its news staff as they work to be a part of a new AM service on the old WTOP AM ("NPR on caffeine," so they say).

On Monday, another follows by a day a column by Mr. Kurtz on the overall decline of journalism jobs in many key outlets nationwide.

That column from March 13 is most chilling to me. While cable TV, news websites, blogs and more are filling up with opinion and "live" coverage, the actual work of covering issues, industries and trends over time looks to be getting strained ever further.

In public radio, stations and networks are trying to expand coverage and journalism work, but we have a long way to go. When you ponder the reductions at the Washington post, one must remember that the WP still has about as many news reporters as National Public Radio has employees. Yet, if you add in all of the reporters in public radio as a whole and the industry may actually have as many journalists working nation and world-wide to match or exceed the Post.

But our efforts are not well coordinated, our coverage often relies on our print colleagues for many of our leads. While media outlets cross-pollinate all the time, journalism relies on having sources, building relationships and finding out the true story beyond public pronouncements, press releases and self-interested spin. This takes time - and people.

The dual challenge is to have journalists being productive and efficient in producing content for multiple uses and platforms, but ALSO allowing for time to learn and discover. Discovery doesn't do very well from an anchor desk or a pundit's chair. Discovery does even less well on chat shows where journalists/talent must be creating content non-stop. The best chat shows have many people working behind the scenes gathering the best guests, getting the best information and keeping people on their toes.

This isn't to say that public radio isn't doing outstanding journalism and breaking stories. Nina Totenberg filed a remarkable story on a recent speech by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor that is only now gaining traction in the rest of the media world.

The role of the Fourth estate is being challenged. In a world where a person can readily find opinons that reinforce personal beliefs and preferences, how will we allow for discovery and the vetting of information to test its veracity? Blogs can sometime do a good job of truth-squadding, but breaking through the noise is getting more and more difficult.

It would seem that mass media still has a place...but will it be able to fill it?

The Broadcasting Model - ABC/Disney has a different idea

Broadcast Engineering calls it a "shakeup" of the television business Model.

According to this report, ABC is planning offer many of its programs as free, commercial-supported downloads.

Disney CEO Robert Iger is quoted as saying, “We will no longer be slave to the old business models because consumers just don’t care about them.”

Of course, this will be interesting for local television stations and even cable operators. What do those local (and regional and national) players bring to the deal? With ABC news getting leaner and leaner, is the local news affiliate of any worth? Or is the news division - in need of live-access for breaking stories - going to be split off from entertainment, or does ABC exit the news business altogether?

This is probably the first of many moves by national players in leaving the old, locally tied business model. In TV, the PAX network, WB and UPN were created to gain local access and cable must-carry into homes across the nation at a bargain rate compared to fighting with cable-carriage. But PAX seems to be going away, WB and UPN are merging -- will there be enough home-shopping channels to fill these swaths of TV spectrum (and the added cost of running them in HD?)

The ramifications in public media - and especially public radio - loom large. Disney / ABC is a very large company with many different interests. One would presume they are thinking that losses in the broadcast sector can be recovered, in part, through their deep and diverse intellectual property holdings. But what if NPR, PRI or American Public Media follow the same "direct" philosophy with their most valuable programming?

Robert Iger seems unworried about what ABC loses - even at Owned and Operated TV stations. Some in public radio are similarly unconcerned about local public radio stations in a direct-connect world.