Unlikely Words » media

AOL’s new late night show with Kevin Smith, Adam Carolla, Kevin Pollak

aaron cohen — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:36:28 +0000

You see? This is what I'm talking about. 3 people, Kevin Smith, Adam Carolla, and Kevin Pollak, 3 relatively famous dudes who have created their own platforms, are now getting in to the late night game by recycling content they're already producing independently. I don't think this will last very long because I don't think people want to watch appointment TV on their computer, but I still think it's important in a way I can't really verbalize correctly. If the stars can use technology to make and distribute media themselves, the entire industry gets shaken up the way record labels did in the last 10 years. Artists don't need record labels to record or distribute their music anymore if they can create their own promotional platform. Smith, Carolla, and Pollak have done that, and they don't even really need AOL to make their own late night talk show.

All three men already have popular online programs or podcasts: Smith — who has had a busy week at Sundance — has his Smodcast Network, Pollak has Chat Show and there’s The Adam Carolla Show. Now AOL is teaming with those existing shows to create a daily video series.

Via KEvin Smith

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Why Publishing is in Trouble, Part 35

aaron cohen — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:58:33 +0000

Nothing against Sully, but this news that he, "Has already received at least one offer, a two-book deal worth $2.5 million" is wht publishing is in trouble: THEY KEEP PAYING A LOT OF MONEY TO PUBLISH BOOKS NOBODY WANTS TO BUY. Sure, Sullenberger could surprise everyone and be a pilot Hemingway, maybe he's got a Marley inside of him, but who really knows and the idea that anyone would give him $2.5 million to find out is insane (a working definition of which is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result)! Further, he only landed one plane, what could he possibly write about in the second book? To be clear, Sully should get all the book deals and endorsements he can and then laugh all the way to his recliner. The man's a hero, he landed his plane in a river surrounded by cities, but that doesn't make him a writer, and the publisher who signs him will surely see remaindered copies of both books inside the entrance to a Barnes and Noble. /rant

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Podcasts

aaron cohen — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:39:04 +0000

I'm not sure the timeline is correct, but Bill Simmons is comparing the rise of Podcasts to the fall of newspapers. Satellite radio and podcasts already seem the same to me, except you have to pay for satellite radio (hardware and subscription) and podcasts are free.

Bill Simmons: ...I love doing the podcasts and feel like I'm on the ground floor of a medium that is really starting to take off. It's like radio on demand and I think it's going to kill satellite radio in 2 years. I really do. It's also a huge threat to real radio in my opinion, especially when people can get internet in their cars and can just cue podcasts up within 3 clicks. It's astonishing to me that nobody has written a long piece about podcasts yet. This is EXACTLY the same as what happened with sportswriting in the late-90s where nobody was taking the internet seriously and suddenly within 7 years there were a million sports blogs, mainstream sites were crushing newspapers and newspapers were hemorrhaging money. We are headed that way with podcasts. I just think radio is going to become much more niche-oriented over these next 10 years... people don't see it yet. Christian Slater in "Pump Up The Volume" is going to look like a genius.

I try to listen to This American Life, but I usually need a long car ride for it. But I listen to every episode of SModcast and The BS Report. Smodcast, with Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier, is hilarious and might be the only media I find myself laughing out loud to when I'm alone. The unifying theory of Smodcast and the BS Report are famous people hanging out with their friends talking about movies and sports.

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John Madden vs. Joe Morgan?

aaron cohen — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:07:16 +0000

Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici gets catty while commenting on a WSJ.com article on today's Super Bowl color commentator John Madden.

Of course, Futterman can't come right out and say that it's time Madden confined his ramblings to the day room of a retirement home, lest the AARP feast on his flesh, so I've included translations from the newspaperese into English.

Of course, Bercovici can't come right out and say that he hates John Madden because...well, I don't know why, but instead he does the, "Here's what Futterman said, and here's what I think it means," gimmick. As a media critic Bercovici is empowered to just go right after Madden himself so I don't know why he doesn't.

In my opinion, there's one announcer, above all else, that needs regular media flayings, and that's Joe Morgan. Go get him, Berovici.

If you had to choose one announcer to do a commentary of your life that only you could hear, would it be Madden or Morgan? I'd choose Madden because Morgan is so pompous in his incorrect opinions. Plus, Madden would make it seem like a comic book. BAM!

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The Business Of The New York Times

aaron cohen — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:15:51 +0000

Here's a New York Magazine article about the nerds at The New York Times who are doing extremely nifty things with their website. (The Year In Ideas 2008, the chart they put together for movie earnings, and to a lesser extent the galleries (like this one of Obama's People) come to mind.)

What they're doing isn't earth shattering web design, but it does seem to be far and away above what other newspapers are doing and, frankly, how any other websites are presenting news.

I have little faith in web advertising as a sustainable revenue model capable of supporting a website (actually supporting an entire company, print media is circling the drain) like nytimes.com over the long term. The Times released earnings yesterday showing digital ad spending down ("Digital ad revenues, which grew at a rate of 15 percent in the year-earlier quarter, were down 3.5 percent in Q4 2008.") (Then again, Twitter says media is thriving, so who knows.)

I was talking about this with friends and suggesting in the future we might see "NYTimes.com Presented by Apple" (or by Google, or by Microsoft, or by Coca Cola, you get the idea). It's a destination on the web for people, but in order to keep presenting the news in new and innovative ways, they're going to need CPMs that just aren't attainable. Being owned and presented by a company not in the news business seems to me like a very viable option.

2 questions for you:
I'm more fascinated by the melting down of the traditional media than in the auto industry, am I alone on this?
Is the above paragraph completely crazy?

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Michael Lewis to Vanity Fair

aaron cohen — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:13:58 +0000

Sorry, Portfolio. ###Possibly related posts:Michael Lewis in Vanity Fair on AIG – The Man Who Crashed the World Sherlock Holmes Story from Vanity Fair Michael Lewis on the Draft of Michael Oher ### Possibly related posts: