Empowering Women – Real Reality

One of the most important aspects of the Video Revolution is the empowerment of women.

When I first started working at WCBS News in NY, there was one camerawoman on the staff. She was considered something of an oddity in the business.

And it was understandable.

The gear in those days weighed a ton.  U-Matic cameras, separate record decks. The battery belts alone would have eliminated most people from the job.  You had to have the strength and the endurance of a professional fire fighter to even think about it.

Of course, that is now all over.

Broadcast quality cameras weigh next to nothing.

And now women can begin picking up cameras and competing with the boys.

(Personally, I think this annoys a lot of the old-guys cameramen; but that’s another story).

At the Travel Channel Academy, about half our enrollment is women, and our average age is probably 30s-40s.  These aren’t 23 year old kids wanting to break into the business. They’re serious adults. And they all have stories to tell.

This opens whole new opportunities for TV.

Reality TV now is often little more than a car crash, with the audience as rubberneckers.

But there are better, and far more personal stories to tell, once we start to empower people with the technology.

Carey Kyler took the course last week. She had never touched a camera for an edit before.  Here’s the piece she made after the 4-day session.  Her husband is a stay-at-home dad.

Pretty good for the first time ever. And maybe the kind of thing you’d see on Lifetime…  Real people. Real stories.

The Power of the Press

Must See TV….

As with the arrival of the Internet, the arrival of radio in the 1920s shook up the world.

The new medium was extraordinarly powerful.

Now, for the first time in human history, one voice could be heard by millions at the same time.

What followed the invention of radio was a bubble. Everyone got into the radio business. Everyone was starting radio stations.  It was a mess. A bit like the web.  There were also stock offerings in radio companies and radio related companies that came and went as fast as dot-coms.  There are economists who tie the crash of 1929 and the subsequent depression to the irrational exuberance that radio and its ilk brought to the economy. Perhaps we are seeing the same kind of retrenchment post Internet.

Radio changed the world forever.

Because of what it could do.

It could take one person’s voice and place it in millions of homes at the same time.

This was a  truly remarkable achievement, and one that was to have extremely powerful and long-lasting implications.

Prior to radio, most people had never heard nor seen a President of the United States.  Presidents were decided not by popular election or primaries, but by a small group of powerful men.  Presidents were elected by The Electoral College, whose electors were originally selected by the State Legislatures.

The notion of a popular election was…. not even a notion.

Radio, with its power to broadcast (an entirely new concept) gave enormous power to anyone who could get their hands on a microphone and get into people’s homes.

And because the medium was new, the effect of having a voice come out of a box in your livingroom was mesmerizing.  No one had ever heard this before. Ever.

Andrew Jackson might have been able to talk to a few hundred people at a time.  Perhaps a thousand people heard Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.  Now millions heard the same speech.  This then, was the power of radio. It empowered the few.  And while it might have started as a tool to project the thoughts or words of those in power already (think c-span), it soon was captured by those who might never before have had a voice.

Hitler was such a person.  A mesmerizing speaker, apparently, had it not been for radio, his speeches might have been limited to a few Munich Beer Halls.

But this was not to be the case.  For Hitler’s oratory skills were the perfect match for the new medium of radio. And so, this failed painter and near homeless failure in only a few years was catapulted to the pinnacle of power in Germany.

The first celebrity of the new medium.

Without radio, it would never have been possible. It would never have been possible for so rapid a rise for a complete unknown.  Radio magnified Hitler a million fold overnight.

The technology of radio mandated that one voice would be elevated above all others and would come to dominate. That is the nature of broadcasting.  One voice… one person.. sent out to millions.  Radio heralded the arrival of the Superstar – Milton Berle, Amos and Andy and Hitler.

Household words in a moment.

From nothing.

Now, we have a new technology, and one that will have equally powerful ramifications as did radio.

But the technology of the web does not militate for a superstar. The web is not about one voice to millions. It is, rather, about millions of voices to millions.

In the world of the web, everyone is on an equal footing. And everyone get’s their say.

We don’t have to listen to one message – whether it is I Love Lucy or Hitler.

As the web percolates out into the general population, and as more and more people take advantage of the technology and upload their ideas as well as download them, we will see a true democratization of ideas.

I think the days of Katie Couric are drawing to a close. Note because she is bad, but rather because now anyone can be Katie. And why not?

What does Katie have (or Matt… or Sarah Palin for that matter), that I (or millions of others) don’t?

The answer, in the world of the web… is… not much, actually.

On Second Thought

He ‘got’ the new media….

On Friday, I was interviewed by Brian Lamb for Q&A on C-Span.

(Sunday nights at 8pm)

The interview was a grueling 57 minutes without commerical breaks, and unedited.

Lamb threw me a few questions I was not prepared for, and frankly that I had not thought much about before.

One of them was which of the current Presidential and VP candidates are using the new media the best.

My answer then was not too good, but I thought about it a lot since, and my answer now would be none.

None of them.

FDR was running for the Presidency in 1932 when he was confronted with a new medium – radio.

FDR ‘got’ radio. He got it in that it was a way to create an intimate relationship with voters, to put themselves in everyone’s living room at the same time. As though he was just sitting there. Today, this may seem self-evident, but in 1932, radio was still little understood, particularly as a political tool, and most radio broadcasts were broadcasts of events and speeches. The notion of simply sitting in front of a microphone and talking to the ‘folks’, (like Rush Limbaugh does) was new and novel. Roosevelt was one of the first to embrace this new medium.

Now we have a web that carries video. And video is one of the most powerful tools of communication that we have ever seen.

But up to now, politicians have used online video as a way of ‘broadcasting’ their packaged messages – packaged and produced by ad agencies.  Sort of the way that Herbert Hoover used radio to broadcast his speeches, but not to create an intimate relationship.

What could a candidate do with video and the web?

Well, they could use a video camera to talk directly to the American people.

All the time.

Whenever they felt it was necessary. At the drop of a hat. In an instant. And on anything.

Maybe it would only be for a minute. Maybe less. A kind of video twitter.

But they could do it

They could do it and upload the clip.

And keep uploading clips.

Until it became a kind of online conversation.

Cut out the ad agencies, the producers, the production companies, the TV networks.. and the delays.

Instant

Immediate

Powerful

Intimate

Personal.

At least, that is what I should have said.

Brian, can I come back for a retake?

I Do C-Span (tune in!)

Brian Lamb and Me

Today I was on C-Span.

Well, actually, the Senate hearings were on C-Span.

I was taped on C-Span, for Brian Lamb’s weekly show, Q&A.

Q&A airs every Sunday night at 8PM.

I’ll let you know the air date as soon as I know.

It was a one-on-one for an hour, no commercials, and it was both grueling and enormously stimulating at the same time.  Brian Lamb is one hell of an interviewer.  Lots of questions that made me think. And it’s all live to tape, so no breaks and no retakes and no editing.

I am honored that I was asked to be on the show!

Other guests have included, Roger Ailes, George W. Bush, Mark Cuban, Mike Huckabee, Thomas Sowell, Bill Kristol… Not bad company.

Everybody’s Doing It

The $14 Million VJ

There seems to be little question now that the “Revolution” is getting past its Revolutionary phase.

Katie Couric, anchor for The CBS Evening News was photographed in the CBS newsroom using a small, hand held video camera.

We haven’t seen any of her work, but we can sure suggest a great 4-day course where she could learn to shoot and cut.

We just kicked off another one here in DC, at the home of the Travel Channel.  40 new TJs, or Travel Channel Journalists are just heading out for their first day’s shooting.

Stewart and Me

Stewart Pittman, one of the most literate and articulate lensmen in the business has a daily blog that I like a lot.  You can link it on the right.

Today, he posts on his visit to the News Museum, and I must respond.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

FutureSchlock

I like this old photo of Charles Ewing and me, if only because we look like museum pieces. I can just hear the tour guide now…

“Now kids. next up is a life-size replica of a once common sight: the video news crew. Believe it or not, simple news footage used to be acquired by more than one person! Teams of two would use bulky recording equipment to pursue all sorts of minutia for their evening newscasts. Can you say ‘evening newscast’? Good… Usually clad in colorful logos, these early interlopers would produce feverish dispatches that often featured extended on-camera appearances by the prettier of the pair. It seems strange now, but this form of reportage flourished in the last half of the Twentieth Century, when average citizens only had 500 or so ‘Tee-Vee’ channels to choose from. Of course everything changed when Saint Albert Gore invented the internet and revolutionized telecommunications. Despite the explosion of electrnic outlets, the tenacious news crew held on for quite some time, far surpassing the decline of American newspapers. Does anyone know what killed the video star? Hmmm? That’s right – the live decapitation of Geraldo Rivera by a flying piece of weed-eater string during Hurricane Virgil in 2017. That event went on to become YouTube’s most watched video of all time, but eventually soured the viewing public on the idea of narrated news altogether. Which brings me to our next exhibit, the Rosenblum Institute of Fuzzy Coverage. Follow me class – but be careful! The ceilings – and standards – are very low in there…”

posted by Lenslinger at 7:37 PM

My Rabbi

The Ambassador at lunch

In 1998, I undertook to convert the Voice of America from a short-wave radio operation to television by training the radio reporters to replace their nagra tape recorders with video cameras.

It was a big success.

Each month I had to report to the Board of Governors.

One member of the Board was Carl Spielvogel.

One day, Carl called me and said he wanted to meet me in his office in New York.

He was also on the Board of the Financial Times, and had an office in their building.

When I got to the FT, I was taken not to an office, but to a cublicle on the floor. There was Spielvogel. He pulled another chair into the cubicle and offered me a drink.

I was a bit surprised. I thought surely a Board member would have an office. So I asked him. “Is this your office?” He said, “sure. I have a phone and a rolodex. What else do I need”. It was my first lesson.  Spielvogel said to me “you are on the cutting edge of a Revolution. I am going to make you a rich man.”

Sounds good to me.

Spielvogel had a fascinating background.  He went to City College in NY and then went to work for the NY Times as a reporter.  He was the first reporter to cover the advertising business. But he soon migrated to the business itself, and over time built, on his own and from scratch, one of the largest ad agencies in the world -Backer and Spielvogel.  Later he went on to build and own the largest auto dealership in the US, the United Auto Group.  In his copious spare time, he was also US Ambassador to Slovakia and sits on the boards of major corporations, museums, Lincoln Center and universities.

Impressive? You bet.

But the most impressive thing is that for the past ten years he has always made time to talk to me, to help me out, to give me advice, both business and personal, and to partner with me on a few projects.

Every once in a while you get lucky in life, and meeting Carl was one of those lucky happenstances.

So thanks Carl, for your many years of friendship and advice. I hope I can repay you with a big success one day.

The Next Frontier

This was once the cutting edge …

A few years ago, a friend of mine was hired to make an ad for M&Ms.

The budget was a mind-shattering $3million for a 30-second spot.

It got me to thinking.

Most of an ad is the creativity.  They can be simple, but they have to be clever.

And many of them can be made by anyone with a camera, a laptop and some command of graphics. If you can do laptop animations or more, all the better.

Current.com, the venture we started with Al Gore to democratize television has been pushing the idea of ‘User Generated Ads‘ for some time.

The results are pretty good. One person even sold her ad to L’Oreal for $10,000.

So, I thought, let’s take this to the next level.

We all know that VJs can carve out their piece of the pie in the world of news and docs and reality shows. But what about the world of advertising? Is this ripe?

I think so.

Suppose we had a hyper-local tv station somewhere in the world.

That station’s bread and butter is going to be local advertising – really local advertising. The kind of ads that would support a small town local paper.  The dry cleaners, the local pizza place. The shoe store.

These are not the kind of people who would normally buy TV ads. Or produce them. Or even think about them.

But suppose they could?

Suppose that by using VJs to produce your local news, you drove the cost of production so low, that an ad spot went for $150, or even $50.  Would this attract a local pizza parlor to advertise on local cable?

I think it might… if we made it easy enough for that guy to get his ad made and on the air.

Now, he’s not going to go to an ad agency, and no ad agency is going to talk to him. For those prices, you’re not going to get 10 minutes worth of time from a ‘creative director’.

Nope.

But you might get it from a creative person who had a camera and an edit and an idea on how to make a cool 30-second spot for the pizza guy.

And the pizza guy might be pretty intriguied with the idea of his being on TV, explaining why his pizza was the best in town.

And suppose we paid the creative guy, the one with the camera who made the spot, a commission and a royalty every time the spot aired – not matter how long it aired.  Actors in commercials get paid as long as the spot runs, even if it runs for years. Why don’t we do that with the creative person who made the spot?

The intial buy might be small, but if the spot keeps running, it keeps paying.

The long tail effect.

So that’s what we’re going to do.

And we have all the pieces in place.

We’re starting in DC, and we’re looking for a few good ‘creative people’.

Lemme know if you’re interested.

I think it will work.

Quite well, in fact.

America Loves A Good Story

So cute…. later, it will eat you.

I am watching the Today Show this morning from the Embassy Suites (don’t ask) in Chevy Chase, Md.

The economy would seem to be melting down and Wall Street is dissolving, but on the Today Show, we are treated to a heartwarming story of the Safari Zoological Park in Kansas.

They are showing 3 tiger cubs ‘raised’ by a “miracle” dog.

It makes a great story.

But if you listen carefully, (and kudos to Matt Lauer who sort of slips in the uncomfortable facts), the ‘miracle’ dog did not really ‘rescue’ the tiger cubs.  The cubs were kind of put in a box with the dog. And the dog does not nurse the cubs. (“We botttle feed ‘em, Matt”).  And the real ‘miracle’ here is that the Safari Zoological Park was seemingly going bankrupt until the Today Show ‘rescued’ them with a spot.  (“God saved us on August 1st when we were on your show”.)

Ahem…

Americans love a good story.

There is a wonderful book all about America’s love affair with a good story, (often in the face of more uncomfortable facts), called An Empire of  Their Own: How The Jews Invented Hollywood by Neil Gabler.

Hollywood, Gabler points out, was invented pretty much by 5 Jews who came from a 60 mile radius around the Polish town of Pinsk.  Louis B Mayer, Jack Warner, Harry Cohn, Adolf Zuckor and William Fox (as in 20th Century Fox, Louis Mayer as in Metro Goldwin Mayer; Jack Warner as in Warner Brothers.

These guys came to American with no idea whatsoever of what the real America was, but they had a dream of what American could be ’streets paved with gold. Small towns. White picket fences. Mickey Rooney.

They went on to put that dream on the silver screen, with little regard to what was going on in the real America.

Americans bought it.

It became their collective history. The thing they remembered about their own past – even if it bore little or no relationship to reality. It did not matter.

When Ronald Reagan spoke of that ’shining city on a hill’ he was not talking about a real past. He was referring to the Adolf Zuckor vision that we all shared.  Perfect.

The reality of a Safari Park in Kansas (what the hell is that about to start with?) going broke and calling a PR agent to get their story on the Today Show (of how they jammed a few tiger cubs into a box with a dog…heartwarimg) is not the story America wants to hear. It wants to hear a MIRACLE.

Miracle dog.

All this brings us to the collapsing economy and Mrs. Palin.

The Miracle Story we can all relate to.  Soccer mom who becomes President and saves the country.

Great movie.

Heartwarming.

Like the POW story.

Heartwarming.

America loves a great story.

What America does not deal real well with, apparently, is reality.

At least, so far.

The collapse of the Economy is far from heartwarming.

So let’s go with the baby tigers and the ‘miracle’ dog…..and the miracle soccer mom.

Travel Channel Goes to School

This week, we are down at the Travel Channel in Chevy Chase running a Travel Channel Academy, except we are running it for The Travel Channel.

Travel Channel President and CEO Pat Younge has decreed that every employee of the Travel Channel, all 250 of them, will be required to take the Academy course in digital video production.

It’s a good idea.

When you walk into a newspaper like The New York Times, you can pretty much assume that everyone who works there, from publisher to secretary is print literate. They know how to read and write. Otherwise, how could they publish a paper?

Now, when you walk into The Travel Channel (or at least when we are done) you can now know that every single person, from the Executive Producers to the receptionist (she’s in this group) are all video literate. Every one of them can shoot, cut, script and upload a piece.

We think its a great idea.

Every broadcaster should do this.

Travel Channel CEO Pat Younge speaks……

and the staff listens