Is the Phoenix finally dying?

It began as a read on shoptalk aka tvspy. What caught my eye initially was:

One of the biggest criticisms of the millennial generation is that they confuse participation with winning. Everyone gets a trophy in the playoffs. They feel they deserve a promotion because they simply showed up for work everyday.

Wow does that sound like a lot of high school students I’ve dealt with.

But it got deeper as Graeme Newell delved into How Ratings Measurement Is Hurting Broadcast TV.

What I thought was a slam against today’s broadcasting in general is actually a finely focused look at the golden days of broadcast news (70s to 90s), rating vs. share, and finally…

Broadcast ratings will continue to decline in the coming years as cable channels proliferate, internet viewing takes off, and baby boomers die off.

Ouch. Rather than rating yourself on how much of the audience you have, you should be out recruiting a NEW AUDIENCE. The audience who isn’t watching your channel or any channel for that matter.

Gotta love the final line.

Just because your competitor loses doesn’t mean you win.

(Only halfway through what appears to be a pretty prolific day.)

Oh, come on…

“This is one very strange posting by OS News.

The summary:

ALL modern video cameras and camcorders that shoot in h.264 or mpeg2, come with a license agreement that says that you can only use that camera to shoot video for “personal use and non-commercial” purpose…

Oh, come on…

This applies to everything from Flip to professional filmmakers – anyone who uses the codecs. It hasn’t been used yet, but lies in the fine print in those annoying “Yes, I Agree” boxes you always click whenever you pursue new technology.

Be sure to read the entire article AND the comments following. Scary.

I know I use prosumer cameras to make the occasional dollar and always thought I owned my video…MY intellectual property. Now it turns out someone else has their finger on my bank account and I didn’t even know it. Just by using technology, it appears I’ve given up something.

Some more thoughts on journalism…

Been bouncing some thoughts around in my head…and thought I’d toss them out to see if there are any reactions.

Journalism is basically well-organized, well-written, well-produced content, or news. News is information. It has built into an industry employing hundreds of thousands which is read, watched, and listened to by millions.

Those millions in the news audience have always come to their favorite source for two main reasons. Trust and convenience. The trust in the credibility of the source – the industry. And the convenience of not having to track down information for themselves.

That was way back then – but this is now and of course the Internet has changed all of that. Large numbers of the audience still get their news the old fashioned way – from a news organization. Many more get their news the old fashioned way AND by searching and seeking what they are most interested in via computer/Internet.

The latter group thinks they have broken the bonds of waiting for a newspaper/TV news bulletin/radio update…however, all they are doing is grabbing what has already been sought out, researched, condensed, written, produced by journalists (of all ilks).

The paywalls are going up…while in contrast Twitter and other modes of communication challenge all but the most direct feeds from news organizations.

And while everyone is rushing around trying to save journalism…we need to remember that all the audience wants is information quickly and conveniently from a trusted source. Right now I have a number of options to get my daily dose of news:

1. online
2. get more online by paying a weekly fee
3. my daily delivered paper
4. tune in at the appropriate time for TV news
5. turn on 24/7 news radio

Habit prefers option 3 – the morning cup of coffee and the rustle of paper. Tactile is always good at sunrise.