First, a story of content and distribution written by Ty Ahmad-Taylor and published on
Paid Content. He is a former executive at Viacom and Comcast and makes the case against limited channel/pay firewall distribution. It's a good read and the comments that follow are thought provoking as well. This topic is not new to us in radio, but I found his perspective interesting and worthy of recommending.
He states: Distributing across multiple channels in real-time—and cannibalizing existing lines of business—isn’t just the right thing to do. History will reflect that this is the only thing to do. Here’s the key fact for media companies to remember: The value of a customer who doesn’t watch a TV show or a movie is $0.
Read the entire article
here
Second, is a front page story from the Sunday New York Times profiling Fox News Channel's Roger Ailes. I think the man is a media genius. You can love or despise his politics. You can love or despise his channel. But there is no debate about how successful he and the FNC brand are. He's a nobody from the Midwest who has razor sharp instincts and smarts with the guts to bring them to life. It's an amazing story of building something from the ground up to achieve grand success.
From the New York Times:At a time when the broadcast networks are struggling with diminishing audiences and profits in news, he has built Fox News into the profit engine of the News Corporation. Fox News is believed to make more money than CNN, MSNBC and the evening newscasts of NBC, ABC and CBS combined. The division is on track to achieve $700 million in operating profit this year, according to analyst estimates that Mr. Ailes does not dispute.
That article is
here
