Radio & TV execs throw alot of  money, manpower & worthless research at digital

Will any of this be honestly discussed at the NAB Radio Show 2011 in Chicago? Probably not. Will the NAB or RAB step up and sound the alarm? Hmmmm. I wouldn’t hold my breath. By the looks of the 2011 Radio Show agenda and list of same speakers we hear, year after year, the Internet is still being downplayed and discussed as a “nuisance”. No wonder Radio get less than 2% local web revenue share.

Broadcasters still haven’t gotten their digital-revenue act together. They still haven’t understood the very real threat of these new, hyper-local competitors who are out to eat their lunch.

The reason why Radio and TV struggles with online revenue generation is simple:

The wrong people are probably in charge of the digital assets. Their compensation package doesn’t light a digital fire under their ass, so why should they worry about profit?

Still letting a program director or webmaster call the digital shots? Your newsroom manager controlling everything that goes online? Well, good luck with that. There’s no motivation and penalty from those executives to get them serious about making you a big, fat, digital profit. So why did you put them in charge?

What to do: The one person who is ultimately responsible for the financial success of your web initiative must have their compensation directly tied to digital profit.

Newspaper recently came to grips with this sticky issue and is steadily replacing old school, newsroom managers with digital-first executives with biz-dev skills. They had to, as they saw Patch poaching their staff. They saw Facebook, DataSphere, and cable operators ramping up their local, online sales efforts.

At the recent NAB Las Vegas show, CBS Radio’s Dan Mason admitted to getting his staffers digitally motivated was still a big problem. “Our biggest frustration is educating and bringing along our own people” said the CBS Radio chief.

Dan also compared the threat of Pandora, to 8-tracks and satellite radio. Funny, the Newspaper industry made the same kind of dismissive mistake by blowing off Craigslist a few years back, and lost most of their classified advertising.

Have ya noticed? Local media CEO’s always boast about their Internet efforts at conferences. They claim growth in streaming hours, page views and Facebook fans as if any of that really matters. It doesn’t. What really matters is cash flow and digital profit margin.

In TV & Radio you have one person who calls the final shot. That’s the GM. If you have a “team” that’s in charge of the website, your screwed. You don’t have an Internet business model…..you have hobby.

Putting a finer point on it: you have a non-profit hobby that’s a time and money suck.

Watch this video clip that describes the growing digital threats that Radio and TV face in their local markets.

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With this new acquisition, will we see Mr. Michaels apply his trademark tactics on these once dominant, local media giants? We certainly think so.

That’s why we’re going to dial up the way-back machine, and recall how Randy moved in and revamped the Tribune Company a few short years ago. Here’s my post from back then:

Randy Michaels had a plan. The former chief of Tribune would convert the stumbling newspaper and broadcast giant into a media and marketing company. A company that just so happened to own printing presses and broadcast towers. And the only way to accomplish this, was to first transform the company’s deeply rooted and stodgy culture. They had to think and act differently if they were to beat back the local threat of AOL, Google and other online pure-plays. Randy knew that digital would play a major role in this transformation, much like it did in previous makeovers the ex-DJ spearheaded in his past.

The attempted Trib-culture makeover had mixed results. Some, like embedding radio vets into the ranks certainly ruffled feathers. Many of these so-called ‘Randy hires’ are no longer with the company; Lee Abrams, Marc Chase, Jeff ‘Booger’ Kapugi, Kim Johnson, and John Martin. Other new-culture infusions went over a bit better: removal of redundant positions and activities, hybrid sales teams and smarter newspaper production techniques.

Like him or not for some of the recent accusations, Randy has an enviable track record of smartly using digital tech for innovation in media. His early work with radio voice-tracking around 1996, (ex: seasoned DJ in Miami being pumped into Peoria) was hated by 3rd tier on-air talent that were quickly canned by these so-called robo-jocks. But station management and investors loved this cost-cutting tool. Cash-strapped managers saw voice-tracking as a simple and affordable way to have major market talent on their small market stations. The quick expansion of NYC based Howard Stern affiliates is another example of how operators like Infinity/CBS and Mel Karmazin leveraged emerging technology.

Michael’s take over of Tribune with financier Sam Zell shows similar digital thinking and strategy being applied to the Chicago based company. Take a look at this 5 minute video clip (from almost 2 years ago) that highlights a speech given to employees of The Morning Call, Trib’s print operation just outside of Philadelphia. After all this time, the talk is still accurate and relevant. Unfortunately, some of what Randy wanted the staff to embrace and execute either fell on deaf ears, or was sloppily executed at the local level.

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In 2007, WYSP Radio in Philadelphia, a CBS station, sent the mid-day team of Matt and Huggy.. packin’.

Instead of hitting the beach, this radio duo took their show to the web. The loyal fan base downloaded their podcast, and packed nightclubs with their live streaming events.

Click above to watch the short, 5 minute video we produced to show how this worked, and how successful it was.

Watch for other “out of work” DJ’s to adopt these online tactics.

Today, Huggy is on the air at WTKK, Boston Talks Radio. 

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A movie about a local TV news team anchored by Ron Burgundy, becomes a hit. Did the writers really have to stretch their imagination in order to come up with bits for this Will Farrell flick? Not likely. For fodder, they just turned on the local newscast of Anytown USA.

Local TV news; Change or wither. Andrew Hayward, former president of CBS News, shared his thoughts about local TV news, and he pulled no punches. You don’t have to be a mind reader to pick up his vibe……. it better change, or it’s doomed. Here’s what I gleaned up from his speech via an article in a Louisville newspaper. Read the entire article by Rick Redding here.

• Local stations focus too much on crime/murder, since it’s easier to do and video friendly.
• Viewership is shrinking, blood ‘n’ guts stories aren’t relevant to audience.
• Breaking News Alerts …..sensationalizes events that aren’t really news.
• Local, linear newscasts: no longer needed in a world of unlimited, on-demand news choices.
• Nobody under 40 is watching the local anchor. They don’t even know his name.

Some steps to fix it:

• Hire journalists with a different look, who have roots in the community.
• Hire more of those with an expertise in a specific topic or category.
• Don’t always hire a model with a master’s degree in broadcast journalism. Instead, consider hiring a less-qualified local with less-polished look, and give new hire the freedom to find humor in news stories.
• Get more VJ’s on the street. (video journalists). Capture more local video with substance.
• See Online as real-time 24/7 newscast, NOT a dumping ground for stale packages from last night’s 11pm cast.

Will local TV news do well in digital space? I wondered if we asked Mr. Hayward a question like that. Will those local “Action News teams” easily win on the Web? Will that slick, 2 minute blood & guts story translate to a younger online audience? We surmise that he would say “not likely if they don’t make some big changes…..and fast.”

Will Newspaper take the online video crown instead ? Let’s refer to a friend of mine; Howard Owens, about why he thinks Newspapers are well equipped to win the online video battle….over TV. (Howard runs a very successful, hyper-local news site in Batavia, NY.)

1. More feet on the street: In large markets, newspapers can equip more reporters with video-capable cameras, and you don’t need expensive cameras to produce good online video; in small markets, TV isn’t going to cover many local stories.
2. TV can’t cover a story without sending out a “crew,” which means they cover only stories that they’ve pre-screened as being video worthy, worthy of the time to send a crew out to a location, which means they miss a lot of good stuff that “print” reporters will naturally stumble across – quantity means more choices for online video watchers, which is a distinct and huge advantage.
3. For newspaper reporters, there is no pre-conceived idea of perfect TV video, so any experiment goes.
4. Newspaper reporter shooters can give sources a chance to speak for themselves, making the video more personal and more meaningful than what TV will do with the same material.

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It was an interesting NAB Radio Conference, (National Association of Broadcasters) here in Philadelphia.  

I was invited to do a session on Web sales. It was called: How can Radio learn from Newspaper and other Online Revenue Leaders.

As a former Radio guy, it was kinda nice to be speaking in front of my former colleagues as they grapple with monetizing their Web assets. (Got my start as a Regional Sales Director with Clear Channel Interactive in 1999)

Main take-away: learn from the local, online revenue leaders.

Topics I covered: Common Radio Website Mistakes, Online Video for Sales, Rep Compensation, Job Description Overhauls, Overcoming Common Objections, High-Value Inventory, and Integrated Promotions.

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The talk format is exploding online. Some of this growth is due the ‘downsizing’ of on air talent.

Matt and Huggy were shown the door after 11 years on the air at WYSP, Philadelphia.

Instead of just collecting an unemployment check, they took their show online, and started a regular Podcast. On top of that, they continue to do appearances and get paid to record their podcasts on location….. at clubs.

Click video above to see the mini-documentary that I produced in 2007: The Matt and Huggy Podcast

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