Media Making News
For years we’ve been hearing about how the internet has been slowly changing the media business. Well, news reports in the past few days make it readily apparent that change is picking up a lot more speed.
Unless you’ve been vacationing on the moon these past few days, you know that Jay Leno is now staying with the Peacock Network. Instead of leaving after his Tonight Show contract is up in May, he will stay to host the new “Jay Leno Show” in prime-time next fall.
NBC has been broadcasting this in every news program, often with the caveat that it really is news, not just self-promotion. I think it’s actually a bit of both. First, networks never give up a chance to shamelessly promote anything in their so called “news blocks”. But second, it really is news because it certainly shows just how concerned traditional network executives are about the rapidly changing habits of viewers.
Prime time scripted shows are costing more to produce for a shrinking audience. And advertisers are following viewers to cable and the web in record numbers because “that is where the eye-balls are”, to coin a well-worn TV sales pitch. Leno may be expensive, but producing the show could cost less than half that of a “Law and Order” episode by example.
And changing that format will cost more jobs on top of some 30,000 already lost in media industries in 2008, according to Ad Age. Broadcast, print and even internet jobs are being cut as advertisers cut back in the weak economy and audiences are further fragmenting. Since 2000, media has lost more than 200,000 jobs.
Media pundits tell Ad Age the recession is giving traditional media the cover it needs to re-structure its business model just as Detroit automakers must to survive in a lower-cost environment. And some will certainly not survive. The Chicago Tribune’s bankruptcy filing earlier this week surprised no one in the business, especially those who have been for years predicting the death of newspapers.
As consumers you may delight in the wide array of choices you now have in this new media environment. But beware. Those choices will be produced more cheaply, meaning quality and content will certainly suffer.
(Brian Banmiller is a national Business Correspondent for CBS News Radio, free lance writer and public speaker. The former television business news anchor in San Francisco can be reached at brian@banmilleronbusiness.com .)
