REICH COMMUNICATIONS

Some good news for newspapers

Newspapers continue to struggle with ways to monetize their online content.

The internet almost killed papers years ago, as their classified ads sections, which had been goldmines, disappeared when free online sites like Craigslist siphoned away their small but lucrative ads.

As print newspaper readership dropped, many found it harder to maintain lucrative display ads. Retailers experimented with online ads, and many consumer product marketers had already migrated over to TV, with its mass audiences.

Early attempts to monetize their news content proved tricky and futile, since consumers, especially younger ones, were reluctant to pay for what they had been getting for free for so long.

Some papers are finding a solution, even if a partial one. The New York Times last month announced plans to begin charging a subscription fee for since of its newsletters, like those offering news and political analysis.

And now some papers that have cut back or even totally eliminated print editions are planning to revive them, online, as newsletters sent to opt-in paying subscribers. The Spokane Spokesman- Review, for example, will be bringing back the defunct evening paper, the Daily Chronicle, as a paid online newsletter. When that paper closed in 1992, its daily circ was less than 20,000, from a peak of 72,000 in the 60s.

With people now hungry for local news, digital subscriptions are up to 10,000 after less than 2 months.

There are similar stories in other cities. Many newspapers continue to struggle, but I'll take any good news I can get when it comes to the newspaper business.

The New York Times - Hardly "Failing"

 

Despite name-calling from a past president, The New York Times seems to be doing very well, thank you.

The paper reported last week that it has nearly 8 million subscribers and it expects to exceed 8.5 million by year-end and 10 million by 2025.  Revenues and profits were higher than expected, as digital subscriptions are helping make up for declines in print advertising. Overall advertising in The Times rose by 66 percent as marketers are returning to pre-pandemic levels.

It's a good sign that people DO care about news and accurate reporting, even after the previous administration continually tried to undermine legitimate news organizations.  Investigative reporting by The Times and other major news organizations like The Washington Post, major-city dailies and the broadcast networks are uncovering abuses from the previous administration, while helping keep our current leaders focused and straight.

That's the way it's supposed to work, and that's good news.

What We Do: Virtual Media Tour Gets Results

The quarantine during the pandemic has put up some tough new challenges to get PR clients into the news.

It's also opened some new opportunities, as shown by a virtual media tour we've been doing for The National Road Safety Foundation (NRSF). 

With Bob Thomas Productions, we've arranged virtual interviews via Skype and Zoom with 19 TV stations in markets ranging from smaller places like Joplin, Missouri to top markets including Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Cleveland, Nashville and Jacksonville... with more to come.

Here are two typical news segments -- Click to see spots from the CBS station in Cleveland and the CBS outlet in Bakersfield, Calif.

In normal times, Skype interviews would rarely be acceptable for most TV stations because of picture and sound quality and reliability.  But now we're accustomed to seeing interview guests and even reporters and anchors broadcasting from their living rooms and kitchens. 

Hopefully, whenever things get back to "normal," stations will continue to take interviews via the internet rather than the more costly and time-consuming traditional methods -- traveling cross-country for in-studio interviews or doing spots via costly satellite feeds.

For now, it's working nicely for us.

 

 

 

 

 

What We Do: Virtual Media Tour

 

Producing a TV media tour is usually a time-consuming and costly PR tool.

Traditionally, a media tour requires that a spokeseperson either travel to multiple cities to do interviews in-studio at each TV station or else sit in a studio to do a series of back-to-back interviews with stations by satellite. The city-by-city tour requires a good amount of time and travel, and a satellite tour is quite expensive to produce because of satellite time charges and studio rental.  And few major market stations normally take satellite interviews unless the guest is an extremely high-profile or in-demand person.

But during this pandemic, we've become accustomed to seeing TV anchors, reporters and interview guests appear via Skype from their homes, without the usual top-quality studio cameras, lighting and backdrops. 

So we thought perhaps this could work for our client, The National Road Safety Foundation, which wouldn't normally use one of the traditional media tour methods. 

We're in the process now of producing a ten-market TV media tour, to talk about teen summer driving, which always sees a spike in crashes and fatalities during the summer months. In fact, the traffic safety community refers to the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day as "the 100 deadliest days."

With an assist Bob Thomas Productions, we have NRSF spokesperson Michelle Anderson virtually "visiting" at least ten markets to do live or taped interviews, getting across important messages about teen driver safety and the role parents can play in keeping their young people safe behind the wheel.

The first spot will air live Monday morning on "The Morning Show" on WXIX-TV, FOX 19 in Cincinnati, followed on Tuesday by a taped interview with the ABC station in Johnson City/Knoxville in Tennessee, with several more in the works throughout the nation.

Will this become a "new normal" even after the pandemic has passed or will we go back to the high broadcast-quality standards of TV interviews?  Time will tell, but some creativity and flexibility is working for us and our client at the moment. 

Messaging During a Crisis -- A Challenge for PR

 

Advertising and public relations help drive business for most companies.  For many non-profit groups, like two that we represent, those marketing tools aren't about sales but more about their mission of getting important messages out.

During normal times. 

These are hardly normal times.

As the global focus now is, understandably, on the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses have changed their marketing efforts.  Instead of hard-sell messages, many companies are using advertising to maintain their brand visibility while saying to the public that "we're in this together" or "here's how we're trying to help" or "better times are ahead."

For those relying on public relations, it's a tougher challenge. Many reporters, editors and producers simply don't want to hear story pitches if they're not COVID-related.

For two of our clients, both in the non-profit sector, we're taking their messages and giving them legitimate relevance to the virus. It's working to get our messages out, even in the midst of the pandemic news.

For the Christophers, who annually honor the creators of outstanding books, films and TV programs, we're highlighting this year's winning books by framing the story as something we can do with all that extra free time as we shelter in place... read a good and inspiring book.

For The National Road Safety Foundation, we normally would be talking about distracted driving, since April is designated as national distracted driving month.  Our approach was to issue a release acknowledging that while most of us are driving less now, we still need to remember not to be distracted when we do drive to the superarket or drug store or to do other essential chores.   Taking that approach got us good traction and our story got good media pickup.

The key here...make your story relevant.  If you can't in these times, then wait.

   

 

Keeping Public Broadcasting Alive

Public radio and TV stations, most connected through PBS and NPR, provide an invaluable service to many Americans.

Public TV and radio bring a variety of cultural, educational and thought-provoking programs to us.  They bring a wealth of programming to viewers and listeners not only in the cities, but also to people who live in places not served by local TV or radio. 

How many of us and our children have been taught the ABC's by Sesame Street?  How many of us have been transported to faraway places and distant worlds with shows like NOVA or Travel with Rick Steves, or had our views expanded by guests and segments on "Morning Edition," "All Things Considered" or, yes, Charlie Rose?  

But the president would take all that away, as he's tried in the past three Federal budgets he's presented.  He's trying again.  The budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2021 would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from the current $445 million down to $30 million.

For public stations in major markets, some of the shortfall might be made up by donations from viewers and listeners.  But such a drastic cutback would likely be a death knell for stations in smaller markets.

Maybe this is part of the president's plan to kill independent and fact-based news media.  Maybe it's also a way to free up some funds for Trump's folly-- the wall on our southern border.  It certainly isn't going to fund essential things like Medicaid and Social Security; he's looking to make drastic cuts in those areas as well. 

The proposed budget also looks to eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  The advocacy group Americans for the Arts says the NEA has given grants to local arts organizations in every Congressional district in each of the 50 states and also in U.S. territories.

What sort of society would we be without the arts and education?

I take solace in the fact that Congress, which holds approval over the Federal purse-strings has consistently supported PBS, NPR and the NEA, rejecting past budgets from the current administration that have attempted similar cuts to the arts and humanities.  But we can't take for granted that common sense and decency will prevail. 

It's worth a call or email to your Congressman or Congresswoman.

 

Covering the Media... Again

 

While there are many great agencies throughout the country, New York remains the heart of the advertising and PR industries.  Unlike during the “Mad Men” era, they’re no longer huddled together on Madison Avenue, but they’re still here in New York.

Until Stuart Elliott retired from The New York Times a bit more than five years ago, the newspaper of record always gave significant coverage to the ad and media business and, to a lesser degree, public relations.  Stuart’s column was a must-read, as was Randall Rothenberg for a while before him and, for decades, Phil Dougherty. 

Until December 2014, The New York Times had a regular column devoted to the business of advertising and media since 1935.  Now, there’s an infrequent story about an agency or a campaign. 

It seems to me that The Times would want to step up its coverage of the ad business.  The ad column drew readers and sold papers…something that’s a challenge these days for newspapers.

Another popular column in The Times was the “Media Equation,” written occasionally by Jim Rutenberg.  The column became most popular under curmudgeon David Carr, who covered the media from 2002 until his death in 2015. 

The Times announced yesterday they’ve hired Ben Smith, the editor of BuzzFeed, to cover the media.   

I’m looking forward to reading him starting early in March.

Now, if The Times could only get back to serious coverage of the ad and PR business again.  Long overdue.

A Sad Day on Sesame Street

 

Sesame Street will never be the same.  Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch passed away Saturday. 

Actually, it was Caroll Spinney, the 85 year-old puppeteer who created those iconic and beloved characters, who died.

Spinney was with Sesame Street from its beginning until he retired only a year ago.  He gave Big Bird and Oscar distinct personalities -- Big Bird a naive and sweet Bird who saw the good in everyone, while Oscar loved chaos, hiding his true feelings under a persona of gruffness.

I do publicity for the annual Christopher Awards.  In 2008, Caroll, who had previously won a Christopher Award for his children's book, was the presenter for the Children's Books Awards. 

Before he presented the awards, he told a story that touched me -- and it obviously touched him because he became choked up as he told it from the podium.

He told of a letter that came to the producers of Sesame Street from the parents of a young boy of about 5 who was dying of cancer.  He had lost the will to fight and was depressed -- never smiling.  The parents asked if it might be possible for the boy to get a phone call from Big Bird.

The letter was passed along to Spinney, who immediately agreed.  He called the boy and, in his Big Bird voice, spoke with him for several minutes.

A week later he received another letter from the parents, telling him how thrilled their son had been to get the call.  He showed excitement and smiled for the first time in weeks as he told his parents, who were at his bedside in the hospital, that Big Bird had called him and he was happy that Big Bird was his friend.  A few minutes later, he peacefully slipped away.

Spinney's voice choked with emotion as he told the story. 

I had a chance to chat with him for a while after the ceremony, as he posed for pictures with Oscar on his lap.  He told me that to that day he is glad that he showed compassion and called the boy.  As we talked about it, his eyes teared and he explained it still moves him, even after many years.

Spinney also told me that Big Bird's role originally was simply to teach about letters and numbers.  But he realized the importance of teaching about compassion after he walked past a man on the street who he assumed was a derelict muttering to himself.  Something made him stop, turn around and ask the man if he needed help.  It turned out, the the man couldn't walk well and had been asking strangers to help him across the street.  Spinney walked the man not only across the street, but the three blocks to his apartment building.

The next day, he told the producers of Sesame Street that he wanted Big Bird to teach kids about feelings and compassion.  And after a while, Big Bird became the character who expressed concern about others' feelings.

We talked for a while, and then I thanked him for taking the time.   And he said to me, "No. Thank you for coming over to talk with me."

And then Oscar gave me a hug. 

I feel lucky I had the chance to meet Caroll Spinney... and Oscar too.  He brought a lot of joy into the lives of many children (including mine) and adults.  Thanks to Sesame Street reruns, he will continue to do so.  I’m sure that makes him smile, wherever he now is.

 

Put on the Blinders

Over the past three years, we've become accustomed to dumb statements and actions coming from the president and the White House.  Some we try to ignore and others are truly offensive and/or damaging to us and our society.

This one could fit in either category... an order by the White House to all federal agencies to stop subscribing to The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Clearly, the president wants to put blinders on us so we see only what's right in front of us, or in this case, only the news (or lies) he would prefer we see, rather than the truth of what's happening.

The facts of the Ukrainian quid-pro-quo episode, along with the attempts to cover it up, are right there in front of our eyes, so even with blinders, it can't be missed. 

But what's most troubling is the president's attempts to stifle the news media.  It's the type of move one of his autocrat heroes would pull.  It is not what an American president should be doing...even this one. 

Compared to so much of the chaos he is doing every day, this move is a small one.  But it should be noted and decried.  It is NOT the American way.  We will not allow blinders to be placed on us.

 

 

 

 

Emmy Awards recognize the "new" TV

Regardless of whether you liked the awards telecast or not, the The Emmy Awards again put the spotlight on how much TV has changed over the 20+ years.

First, take a look at which networks won the most awards...   Most winners by network: HBO, 34; Netflix, 27; Amazon, 15; National Geographic, 8; NBC, 7; CNN, 5; FX, 5; CBS, 4; Fox, 4; Hulu, 4; VH1, 4; YouTube, 4.

One of the major broadcast networks -- ABC -- got only one Emmy Sunday night.  And the four broadcast networks combined took home only 16 awards -- less than half of what HBO won.

But the big news is how many awards the streaming networks got -- Netflix, Amazon, Hulu.  (Who even heard of Hulu five years ago?)  The streamers dominated the awards.

Don't cry for the networks, though.  Even if they don't dominate the awards anymore, they're still pulling big audiences and even bigger ad dollars.  Broadcast TV isn't going to disappear, although the focus on the subscription (HBO and Showtime) and streaming services like Netflix and Amazon is forcing the broadcast nets to up their game in terms of program quality.  They're not just lowest common denominator programming anymore.

I can remember when top film actors and directors wouldn't go near TV.  But not anymore - not for a long time.  TV programs now feature big screen stars like Michael Douglas and Jane Fonda. 

TV (if you include all the ways programs get onto your TV screen) has come so far from the time in 1961 when FCC Commissioner Newton Minnow called it a "vast wasteland."  TV now seems to be in a new golden age, which is good for all of us.