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Newark - focal point for a revolution in video

New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the country. It is also the second wealthiest state in the country.

Strange then, that such a rich and powerful state should be so lacking in its own television power.

But it is.

New Jersey has always suffered from its location. Benjamin Frankly called it a keg tapped at two ends. In the north, New York, the number 1 media market in the country dominates. To the south, it is Philadelphia, the number 5 market.

Rich in income, rich in stories and rich in population, New Jersey has never really developed her own media base.

But now, as newspapers gravitate toward video and the web makes mass video distribution possible, The Newark Star Ledger, the 15th largest newspaper in the country, is poised to become the focal point of a revolution in digital media, and a beacon and model to newspapers around the world struggling to find their identity in this new digital age.

We have signed a deal with The Newark Star Ledger to shepherd them into this new age of online video. We will be transforming their print reporters and photographers into digital journalists; and we will be building an online video reporting component that we believe will rapidly fill the video/television vacuum that has been New Jersey’s fate for more than 50 years.

This is a long term project, but I am going to be reporting its progress here as it happens. There is an extraordinary opportunity to build something new, bold, powerful and profitable here. And that is what we are going to do.

We have just completed our first round of video ‘tests’ - a process in which we give staff members a small, inexpensive video camera and ask them to ‘tell us a story’ with the camera. No editing. No writing. 3 minutes.

The results have been fascinating.

You can teach someone to shoot and edit video fairly quickly. What you can’t do quickly is reproduce a lifetime of journalism and reporting experience, either in print or as a photojournalist.  But you can harness it to a new medium. There’s talent here by the bucket full. And those buckets of talent are going to go a long way to filling the media keg that Franklin described a long time ago.

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None of these people had ever touched a camera or an edit before in their lives. The produced these during the 4-day bootcamp. They are each, in their own way, personal statements using video. Of course, these people are just at the very beginning of their video lives. But it’s a very impressive and creative beginning.

Tony Horwitz

I bought Tony Horwitz’s new book, A Voyage Long and Strange just prior to getting on a plane at Santa Barbara airport. By the time I landed in Newark, I had finished the book. It is one great read.

Horwitz fills in the ‘missing years’ in American history, between Columbus’ discovery of The New World i 1492, and the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620. And what a fascinating story it is.

I was struck, however, by the impact that the relatively new technology of the printing press (1452) had on our perceptions of history to this day. Columbus discovery in 1492 was only 50 years after Gutenberg first set ink to movable type, forever changing the world. And, there is no doubt that Columbus was the first European (at least since the Vikings) to set foot on the Americas, (even if he thought he was just off the coast of Japan).

The interesting part is in the name Americas. Why is the place not called Columbia?

It turns out that while Columbus was a great sailor and navigator, he was pretty crap at his command of the then-new technology of printing and mass media (such as it was). A well-connected Florentine merchant, one Amerigo Vespucci was hardly the sailor that Columbus was, but boy did he grasp the power of the Internet of his time.

Vespucci, (so I learned from Horwitz), rushed to print, and boy did he understand his audience. Here is a paragraph from one of his books about The New World (Courtesy, A Long and Strange Voyage, p.77):

Native women, he claimed, were giantesses - “taller kneeling than I am standing”- and impervious to age and childbearing, with taut wombs and breasts that never sagged. “Being very lustful,” Vespucci wrote, the women used exotic devices and insect venom to “make their husbands’ members swell” to fantastic size. Best of all, they were “very desirous to copulate with us Christians,” and native men regarded it as a great token of friendship” to give the Christians one of their daughters, “even when she is a young virgin”.

Not surprisingly, writes Horwitz, Vespucci’s book became an instant best seller.

At around the same time, (the printing press being so new and all), the first mass produced atlases were also starting to come out. And so when atlas and map maker Martin Waldseemuller added the new, ‘fourth continent’ to his maps of the world, what name did he give it? America, after the well-known author and explorer Amerigo Vespucci!

That is the power of the press. While Columbus died in penury and to some degree in disgrace, the Americas gets name for the man who was a soft porn writer, the  Harold Robbins of his day.

All of which leads us to our own Gutenbergian revolution - the marriage of video and the Internet.

Watching the returns from Indiana and North Carolina, it is not necessarily the ‘best’ who get elected (or even noticed), it is those who understand the new medium and how to use it best.

Perhaps it will be the videos of the Rev. Wright on Youtube (’God Damn America’) that will be the demise of the once promising Obama campaign. Perhaps there will arise a candidate who really understands the power of the web/video marriage. Or perhaps there will come a news carrier (former newspaper?) that will learn to embrace the new medium for all that it is capable of?

That isn’t to say it is always the best and the most deserving who triumph, but rather those who understand just how the new medium works.

History, so goes the old aphorism, is written by the winners. In truth, I think, it is written by those who first pick up the newest pencil.

The Travel Channel Academy gives everyone a great opportunity to take a crack at the TV world.

One of our recent grads has really taken his TCA experience to heart.

A few posts ago, I wrote about Jay Russell, a former South Carolina State Trooper who had gone into business for himself as a private ‘Drug Hunter’. He and his dog work for major corporations and others. They’ll scour work sites and even universities in search of illicit narcotics.

He’s to drugs what Magnum PI was to crime.

We met Jay at one of the NY Travel Channel Academies.

He thought he might like to make a TV series.

So did we.

So we gave him so advice and told him if he could deliver, we would be happy to work with him,

He went back to South Carolina with his video camera and back to work with his KTF (Canine Task Force) dogs. And now, boy has he delivered.

Jay has put his newfound video skills to work, and now we’re busy pitching his show to the networks.

We think there’s a hit here.

We’re all behind it.

Not bad for a recent TCA grad!

Finally!

Yesterday, we added Santa Barbara to our locations for the Travel Channel Academy.

And what a nice place it is!

We are housed at the Brooks Institute for photography, right in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara, and it is a fantastic facility.

We’re definitely headed for warmer climes. We also just closed a deal with the Texas Board of Tourism and will be adding an Academy location in San Antonio as well. Check the website for details.

In the meantime, here are some images from Day 1 at the Santa Barbara Academy:

Barbarians at the Gate: Odoacer takes the number one slot, prime time and otherwise

1976 marked the fifteen hundredth anniversary of the fall of the Roman Empire.

It passed pretty much unnoticed.

1976 had been the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independent, and that got some pretty good play in the press. The Sack of Rome by Odoacer in 476AD did not receive much play or fanfare, which is kind of too bad, because we don’t get to celebrate the 1500th anniversary of too much, let alone the collapse of the number one Empire (at least until Britain) in the Western World.

It is only now that historians can start to take a look at what led to the fall of Rome, a fairly significant event in our past (as it precipitated a thousand years of the Dark Ages, for starters).

I am not going to draw an analogy here between the United States and Rome (though there are many) but rather between (very loosely), the fall of Rome and the fall of Network News, (another predominant Empire in the throes of collapse).

Modern historiography can give many reasons for the fall of Rome, from the Christianization of the Barbarians to overextension to lead in the drinking water. All agree, however, that Rome was not overthrown by outside forces so much as the seeds for its own destruction were carried within the very structure of the Empire itself. Here, I think, is the parallel to TV News.

Many years ago (at the start of time), television news was populated by the best and the brightest of a generation. Murrow’s Boys, (as they were called), came from the wire services. They were first and foremost journalists. They got on TV almost by accident. It was the sheer quality of their reporting and writing, their thinking in fact (think Eric Sevareid, if you can remember him), that produced the ‘trust’ that the network news was known for.

The ’show’ was secondary.

Somewhere along the line, the networks (and local) lost the thread.

The ’show’ became everything; the content of lesser consequence.

Anchors became all hair and teeth.

The ’show’ was all about graphics and music and live remotes from people standing in the dark or in front of courthouse buildings.

The consequence of all this was a debasement of the quality of the content.

Worse still, as television news embraced Hollywood concepts - the ’show’, it also embraced Hollywood salaries (for the Star). Anchors, both network and even local, began to move with an entourage of support teams - hair, lights, stylists, makeup, writers, hand holders.

I am told that every word that Peter Jennings ever uttered on screen (and perhaps off) was written by a team consisting of Schulder, Blatt and Stein.

As the ’star’ concept was ratcheted up, so too were the salaries. We know Ms. Couric’s but that is only the tip of the iceberg in this business.

Well, those multi million dollar salaries have to come from somewhere (even in local, those salaries have to come from somewhere), and where they come from is the budget for the newsroom. They are paid in journalists and crew and equipment. When it comes time to slash the budget, the anchor (ironically) is the last to get tossed overboard. (which is ironic, because they are more often than not the ones who do the least work in the place).

CBS News is now at one of those places where, because they are in so much trouble, (ratings keep dropping to new lows each week), they could.. they could… take a really radical step. They could trash the whole unworkable system and create a very interesting digital newsroom where they could (could) hire the best journalists in the world today (look at places like Huffington Post for starters), and kick ass. With their budgets the could do it in a heartbeat!

But they won’t.

Like their pals 1500 years ago, they will be content to fiddle while CBS burns.

Please Stand By……

Its called ‘leapfrog technology’.

Its the ability to bypass an old infrastructure completely and go immediately to what the newest technologies can create.

Vietnam’s adaptation of mobile phone technology is an example of leapfrog. Rather than build landlines and a landline phone system, Vietnam has opted to go directly to mobile, even for online service.

Local TV stations are in trouble. They are losing viewers and they are big, ungainly, inefficient and not cost effective. They are the children of what is now an increasingly archaic technology. Local stations in major markets employ upwards of 250 people or more to put 8 or 9 camera crews and reporters on the streets every day to gather ‘news’. Is this cost effective? Does it make sense?

Suppose a local newspaper had a staff of 250 people and was only able to field 8 reporters to cover a city. Would the paper even be worth reading?

Fortunately for local TV news stations, newspapers have published in print, and TV has published in video. They two were separate entities.

Not any more.

Newspapers have moved to the web and the web has moved to video. Hence, local newspapers are now starting to ‘publish’ in video. Web service comes with your home cable service, so web penetration is about the same as TV penetration - or will be in some time. Newspapers are increasingly becoming direct competitors to local TV news. They share the same beats, they share the same stories, they share the same reader/viewers and they share the same advertisers.

What’s the difference?

The job of the journalistic organization is to go out into the community, find stories that are of interest or importance and publish them for the community and sell advertising against the readership/viewership. Same business.

Give newspaper reporters and photographers cameras, and what have you got? Local TV.

The relationship is even more incestuous. Almost every local TV news station starts its day by opening up the local newspaper. That is where TV news gets its stories from. They let the local paper do the hard work, and they simply lift the results. Its’ understandable - if you’re only fielding 7 or 8 crews to cover a city, you can’t take a risk of having an assignment not work out - so every assignment is guaranteed. Its guaranteed by the fact the story already happened. How do you know? You read it in the paper!

As papers move to video, they may be drawn toward replicating the Local TV news model on their own. An anchor, a story run down, a ’show’.

Don’t go there.

Time for Leapfrog Technology.

Newspapers, ironically, are the original non-linear product.

You read the stories you wanna read, when you wanna read ‘em. Now you can do the same with video. But we’re also in the world on online - where people expect instant news. When the WTC was hit by planes, we tuned into CNN because we wanted to find out what was happening now! Well, there is a room in your city where people are working around the clock trying to find out what is happening. It’s called the newsroom of your local paper. Open it up. Embrace video and let people into this fantastic service that you are already doing! Advertise it, publish it, produce it.

You are covering the city with reporters - good reporters, who know their beats. Who know City Hall backwards and forwards. Give them video cameras and let them tell their stories in text and video.

Sometimes a story is best told in print. Sometimes its best told in video, Sometimes its a combination of the two. Create a new grammar for the web that combines the best of both worlds. Not print, not video - something entirely different yet compelling.

TV news is a guy at a desk with a box over his shoulder. A City Room for a newspaper is a living, vibrant place where some of the best informed people in town gather to exchange information and ideas. Best movies, best restaurants, best plays, what happened on the subway today. How come the mayor is in such trouble. Who is going to get the nomination.

Ask yourself. Where would you rather be? Which is the more interesting location? Where do you want to ‘tune into’ to find out what is happening? Who do you trust more?

Newspapers have a great moment of opportunity here to seize the ball from local TV news and run with it. To capture the power that was once a city paper and translate it to video for online and perhaps even broadcast. But they have to be prepared to think differently. To leapfrog the current model and embrace all the new technology has to offer.

After all, if Vietnam can do it, I think the local paper can as well.

A little to the left….. a little to the right…. OK… wait….

Technologies have the ability to turn the world upside down without our even noticing.

Not too many years ago, TV signals came into your house through the air, and telephone signals came into your house through a wire.

Today, its pretty much the opposite. Almost all television signals now come into your house through a wire and most telephone calls arrive through the air.

A complete reversal.

The same ‘world turned upside-down’ phenomenon is now starting to take hold in the world of news.

Conventional TV news is in its death throes.  Katie Couric announces that she is leaving CBS Evening News after the November elections. Good move, Katie. Perhaps evocative of rats leaving a sinking ship ,but good move never the less,

TV news is on its way out.  The numbers (even allowing for Katie’s appalling ones) are universally downward, a trend that is likely to continue.  The total cumulative ratings for the three network evening news programs is now less than the total used to be for Cronkite, more than 20 years ago.  And the population of the county has increased by nearly 100 million since then.

What is happening?

Quite simply, no one is watching.

And why is no one watching?

Because the content sucks.

Not that news is not important. It is. But the way in which it is delivered has outlived its usefulness.

And not a surprise. The basic format of TV news (the guy at the desk and the ‘now this’ approach has not changed in 50 years)  If you have a minute, go over to the Museum of Broadcasting on East 53rd Street in Manhattan and take a look at the Camel Caravan of News.  Aside from the black and white, not a whole lot has changed.

If computer design progressed at the same pace as TV News design, I would be writing this on a Compaq the size of a sewing machine and my iPod hard drive would spin at 45rpm.

So TV News is dead.  But what will replace it?

This is where there is a really interesting window of opportunity for newspapers, if they have the courage to take it.

If.

Newspapers have always been the bedrock upon which TV news was built.  Every TV news production meeting started and ended by combing the papers for stories. And why not?  Newspapers traditionally put many more reporters on the street than TV news crews.

As papers move to the web (for their own survival), and the web moves to video, newspapers will also migrate to video.  And here’s the window of opportunity.

Television is going to go non-linear, and new video platforms, such as phones, are going to exercise an enormous appetite for instant video content.  Non linear video content.

Consumers don’t care who provides the content so long as it is a) accurate and b) high quality and c)immediate.

Here is where newspapers can step in and take the video world away from TV news. They have the stories already, they have the reporting staff, they have the brand.  All they lack is the means of production. And in a world of HDV cameras that cost $800 and FCP software that costs that or less, the means or production is at their fingertips.

Ironically, Dirck Halstead, of Platypus fame, sent me an email yesterday detailing how CBS News is now going to demand that all content be shot in HD and will not accept HDV as it is too complex for them to transcode it.

Just another nail in the coffin of CBS TV news.

Do you think viewers (particularly those watching on cell phones) really care if the piece has been shot in HD or HDV?  Do you think they can tell?

CBS’s decision simply means that they have cut themselves off from about a million people around the world who could provide them with content and at the same time upped their own cost of production.

(Attention.  From now on, all passengers on the Titanic will be required to wear cement underwear).

If newspapers are smart (and we think some of them are pretty smart); and if they can remember their core business is the gathering and distribution of news - not the ink part; they stand a good chance of filling the vacuum that the departing network news operations are about to leave behind.

Don’t touch that dial…..dial? What’s a dial?

When I was a kid, I used to lay in bed at night, in the dark, and listen to WOR radio, 720 AM.

Every night, at 10pm, Jean Shepherd ran a show.

It was a talk show, but not like the kind of talk show you think about now. Not ‘Tyra!”

It was a show where he just talked into the microphone. He told stories. And boy, could that guy tell stories. He had an unlimited supply. His stories were all about growing up in Indiana during the Depression. They were about his family, his friends, his life. He wrote a book called “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash”.

And one of his stories went on to become a made for TV movie. Is became pretty popular. It was the story where Ralphie goes to Santa and asks for a BB gun for Christmas and almost shoots his eye out, the family looses the Turkey and has Christmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant. You know the one. It airs every year.

It was an OK story, but not one of Shepherd’s best. Curiously, it survives.

In those days, listening in the dark, radio was magical.

The photo above is my nephew Brett. He’s a sophomore at Dalton, a private school in NY, but he’s on the baseball team. He’s also got his own online radio show: Dalton Sportstalk.

OK. He’s not Jean Shepherd, but then again, he’s 16. And sports, (not the Depression years), is his passion. But the amazing thing here is how at his age, he can get access not just to the media to create his own content, but also a global audience - for free. The barriers to access are not just coming down, they have been completely obliterated.

Now, anyone is free to take a crack at radio, or video, or filmmaking (or blogging for that matter) - all at no cost. Yesterday, the NY Times announced that for the first time in their history they are going to lay off 100 journalists ( or offer them early buy-outs). The Times is from an era when access to an audience was both difficult to achieve and expensive to carry out. That no longer is the case.

What is the new architecture of media in the 21st Century?

You can find it in NY, but probably not at the NY Times’ expensive and massive new building on 8th Avenue. I think its a bit further up….. maybe on a bench on a ballfield in Central Park?