Media Centric Column Archive

July 2, 2009

The Threat of an Online Privacy Bill

Some big and far-reaching issues clutter America's legislative docket today—a cap-and-trade approach to carbon emissions, a wholesale revamp of health care. But ...

June 25, 2009

Charging for Online Content Gets Closer

Expect the ecosystem of the Web to start feeling a little different once the summer slips away. Publishers, stung by an economic downturn and ongoing disappointment ...

June 18, 2009

Is This a Web-Series Model That Works?

The thing about Web video, of course, is that anyone can do it. Shoot it, edit it, distribute it on YouTube (GOOG) and other outlets—done. Assuming, of course, ...

June 11, 2009

Time Warner: Is it Time to Dump Time Inc.?

By announcing plans—finally—to spin off AOL, Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeffrey Bewkes has dealt with one longtime problem child. But another remains in the ...

June 4, 2009

ESPN Bets Sports Fanatics Will Pay for Online

ESPN The Magazine, the decade-old print offshoot of Walt Disney (DIS)'s wildly successful cable sports network, is about to begin charging for access to its Web site. ...

May 21, 2009

Why Broadcast Networks Can't Just Turn Cable

The business of being a broadcast network is glamorous and all that. But it is expensive. Profit margins are notably, and historically, thin. Success all but hinges on...

May 14, 2009

Where Are Advertisers? At the Movies

This year has been characterized by advertisers slamming the brakes on spending across virtually all online and offline media. Yet even within this scarred landscape, ...

May 7, 2009

How CNN Can Beat Back Fox and MSNBC

TO: CNN ManagementFROM: Loudmouth Media ConsultancyRE: Pugilism Bravo for '08, eh? The U.S. elections brought a rare twofer. Intense viewer interest in news--better ...

April 30, 2009

Why TV Advertising Isn't Dead Yet

The economy remains in tatters. The big broadcast networks' aggregate TV ratings are dropping, again. (Or, still.) Total U.S. ad spending is expected to be down this ...

April 23, 2009

AOL's New Plan: Content, Content, Content

You may be forgiven for rolling your eyes at another story about AOL (TWX) yanking back the curtains to present a shiny new notion. Ex-Google (GOOG) ad head Tim ...

April 16, 2009

Local Media: Starving for Ad Dollars

This is a different kind of recession—one that started quietly in late 2007, before the very big bangs hit the very big banks. It's driving a different kind of ...

April 9, 2009

Twitter Makes a Racket. But Revenues?

In Twitter, the masses on the Web have their newest darling child, something that's all delight and precociousness and pure potential. Or at least the masses of media ...

April 2, 2009

Now Comes the Journalist-Consultant

Thanks to the Web, companies have direct online access to consumers. Take that fact, stir in the surfeit of unemployed journalists (or fearful employed ones searching ...

March 26, 2009

The New Ad Frontier for Filmmakers

When the big ad agencies and media companies contract, gaps in the landscape form wherein new blossoms can sprout. One such newcomer is Maximum Entertainment, a ...

March 12, 2009

Blog Company Sugar Looks Beyond Ads for Profit

You might spend some time with Sugar, the family company that owns and runs 16 blogs aimed at young women, and leave thinking its properties have the collective ...

February 26, 2009

Prime-Time TV Isn't Prime Anymore

Add this to the list of media dislocations in general, and television in particular: Maybe prime time isn't prime anymore. I don't mean the Internet runs the world, ...

February 19, 2009

For Subscribers Only: Locking Up the News Sites

The news sentimentalists among us savor the best newspapers—their lovely turns of phrase, their bold reportage—as if they were rare and fragile wines. ...

February 10, 2009

TicketMaster-Live Nation: An Obama Layup

When you're in the midst of a successful run for President, every day brings ample gifts: adoring crowds, rock-star receptions, and, above all, the pure buzz of ...

February 5, 2009

Sports Teams: The End of the Affair

In earlier and more expansive times for media—and very good times they were—the industry's moguls fantasized about hitherto unforeseen advantages to be ...

January 29, 2009

OfficeMax's Wacky Marketing Strategy

Businesses everywhere are adjusting, painfully, to tough times and promoting their wares with limited funds. But that's nothing new for Bob Thacker, the senior ...

January 14, 2009

Web Video: How to Actually (Maybe) Make Money

The two thirtyish founders of Web video production company EQAL, Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, are too media-savvy to boast they've cracked the code for minting ...

January 8, 2009

Who Will Be the Last Media Giant Standing?

The media industry used to worry that ad dollars would disappear, but what was merely feared is now an accelerating trend. Barclays Capital (BCS) forecasts a 10% ...

December 31, 2008

Live! On Sunset: Retailing as Celebrity TV

This is a lousy time for both retail and media, and with Live! On Sunset, veteran denim impresario Gerard Guez is getting into both. His 11,000-square-foot store ...

December 18, 2008

Discovery's Old TV Footage Lights Up Classrooms

From magazine publishers to TV broadcasters, everyone is looking to offset a dismal advertising environment with cool content they can sell directly to an audience. ...

December 9, 2008

Zell's Tribune: The Canary in a Scary Mine

When I wrote a column of predictions last week, I expected some of my guesses for 2009 would never happen. Leave it to Tribune's Sam Zell, though, to make one of them ...