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We Still Own the News

As banks and automobile companies lose autonomy to the government, let all members of the investor class celebrate our continuing ownership of news and information distributors in the private sector. Not all news, of course. NPR and PBS are supported by federal funds as well as whatever local non-profits can raise on their behalf.

Still, most major news and informational media entities are owned by shareholders. This includes the "Big Media" entertainment entities, but also others such as a group of well-positioned tech firms which are growing the list beyond the control of a few.

What are the most influential news information entities in the U.S. halfway through 2009?

1. Time Warner Company, parent of Warner Bros., HBO, CNN and CNN.com, Headline News, CNN International, TNT, TBS, Time and People magazines, etc. is a powerhouse in news and informational content.

2. NewsCorp owns all of Fox including the U.S. station group as well as Fox News, plus the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, several major UK papers including The Times, BSkyB, MySpace etc etc.

I would rank 3. Google, 4. Microsoft, and 5. Yahoo next in order of importance as U.S. news and information entities. These companies are well positioned in internet distribution and mobile licensing of news. If the criteria were purely informational, Google would top the entire list.

6. ABC/Disney belongs on a list of important news entities because of ABC News, 20/20, and the owned and operated television and radio stations. They are a sports, kids, and women's programming powerhouse.

7. GE's ownership of the NBC/Universal including local stations, NBC News, Today, NBC Olympics, and CNBC makes them influential. Their radio holdings do not compare with ABC, however. Telemundo, which owns spanish language TV stations in key markets, is probably a more important news holding than MSNBC.

8. CBS has the local television and radio stations, the news division, and some useful internet properties but they haven't made a strong move to boost news. 60 Minutes is still a player.

9. The Associated Press is owned by its 1,500 U.S. daily newspaper members. I would put them near the top of the print media pile, and their stories are widely disseminated on the key sources of news on the web.

10. The New York Times influences most broadcasters and papers around the country and owns some others, but they really head up the second tier.

11. Clear Channel Communications/Premiere Radio Networks is an influential force, piping out hours a day of popular talk radio programming, including much news and editorial content.

12. I would rank National Public Radio ahead of PBS in news. Its Washington DC affiliate has a huge audience and therefore important influence. Minnesota Public Radio is another powerful non-profit radio entity, but they lack a central news gathering operation. Some local NPR stations are well placed in emerging media such as podcasts.

13. PBS is a rather loose network, with stations such as WNET, WETA, and WGBH (all along the east coast corridor) supplying programs, and sharing influence and a degree of control with the national network. Individual contributors and foundations also play important roles.

14. Spanish language leader Univision has certainly jumped ahead of Viacom in influence since the latter's separation from CBS. Viacom, owner of Paramount, does have Comedy Central, where some people get their news but I would take the company off the list of important news entities.

15. The Washington Post company including Newsweek is influential, with stories turning up on key new media holding like Drudge from time to time. As newspapers decline, watch for companies like Apple, with their news-friendly iTunes podcasts, to consider acquisition of content producers like WP/Newsweek.

16. Gannett has USA Today among its newspaper holdings, but how influential would you rank them compared with e.g. some of the radio station groups?

17-20. What have I left off? Does enough news from Reuters or the BBC trickle in put them on the top twenty. If you're talking about information rather than hard news, Discovery is a player.

The revenues for CNN, Fox News, CNBC etc are set by major cable and satellite corporations including Comcast, DirecTV (presently owned by Liberty Media), the now separately owned Time Warner Cable; Echostar (Dish), etc. These entities have control over on-demand channels and other new media. They have the power to start new channels, or terminate failing ones.

Telcos like Verizon are increasingly competing with cable and satellite in video and broadband, and are leaders in mobile, which is probably the fastest growing source of news and information. So I'd put Verizon in the top 20 with a bullet.

Apple and RIM (owner of Blackberry) are also well positioned to grab the attention of young news-hungry people on the move, and could well vault to the top of the list in a couple of years, should they choose to focus more on news and informational content.

What you see is a diverse landscape of competing entities, most of them widely held by shareholders large and small, individually, and in pension funds,retirement accounts, mutual funds, hedge funds, etc.

Information is power, investor class. Use it or lose it.

June: Churchill at War

Into the Storm, HBO's follow-up to the Emmy-winning The Gathering Storm, premiered Sunday, May 31 and replays throughout June. Brendan Gleeson and Janet McTeer play Winston and Clementine Churchill.

"A relentless leader is the greatest weapon of war" states HBO's publicity poster. The film covers Churchill's leadership during World War II, when his rhetoric gave Britons the heart to fight on. His marriage and his future political standing were also at risk. Revered today, Churchill was not without his critics at the time.

Steadfast leadership and the ability to communicate effectively are both required for leadership in time of war. Seventy years from now, how will this decade's American leaders be judged by history?

Click here for my full review at PajamasMedia.com.

May: Obama's Nortre Dame Speech

Leaving aside the politics of the abortion issue, President Obama taught a valuable lesson about civil discourse at his commencement address in South Bend. Click here for my full review at PajamasMedia.com.

April: The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

For several years now HBO has been trying to recapture the magic of its original programming during the Chris Albrecht years. With Netflix undermining the value of a premium movie channel subscription, it has become more urgent for HBO to find its next hit series. Finally there is hope that HBO will move beyond the hip, edgy, industry insider mentality which has handicapped its search for a broad based hit to lure and retain subscribers.

The program is the The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, based on Alexander McCall Smith's popular novels, and it airs Sunday evenings. The series is the first ever shot in Botswana, and it's a gentle, visually ambitious, and captivating yarn with an immensely likable lead character played by Jill Scott. It's not exactly a globalized Murder She Wrote, but it is a sharp turn away from the cynical, elitist posture we've come to expect recently from HBO.

The stories are remarkably gentle, the visual presentation is stunning, and the African score infuses the series with bounce and optimism. Can't recommend this one strongly enough.

March: CBS' Jesse Stone Movies: A Triumph of Tone

Tom Selleck in CBS' Jesse Stone: Thin Ice

In early March 2009 Tom Selleck returned to CBS for a fifth Jesse Stone movie, Jesse Stone: Thin Ice. The first four Jesse Stone movies are available on DVD and are in the Netflix collection. If you haven't seen them, you're in for a treat. Based on the Robert Parker novels, Selleck's character is a forlorn, lonesome, highly functioning alcoholic solving crimes in a New England beach village. The tone is ruminative, unrushed, absolutely perfect pacing for a series of pictures about a man who has exited life's fast lane for a country road.

Just as Selleck's (and writer Don Bellisario's) Thomas Magnum matured throughout their classic series, the actor here continues to evolve, bearing the scars of middle age with grace and wisdom. Like his character, Selleck doesn't need the pressure of the high octane action hero any more. Magnum PI was a landmark series, and did its part in history, redeeming the public image of the Viet Nam vet. It also reaped the rewards of a #1 hit, registering record breaking syndication sales for a one-hour drama. Give Jesse Stone a place in the record books, too, as one of the last quality effort in the broadcast network made-for-television movie genre. It's also one of the last broadcast programs unapologetically made for the baby boomer audience now shunned by the big advertisers.

These Jesse Stone pictures are everything broadcast network television today tries so hard not to be. It is dignified, quietly intelligent, and respectful of lessons which can only be learned by maturity. There's no pulsating pop music, no frenetic editing, no one in a constant state of sexual overdrive, no preening urban narcissists shouting into cell phones, no automatic weapons, and no references to "texting" and Facebook. There is a dog.

The Los Angeles Times review identifies its essence perfectly -- "This is a slow-moving film, especially in comparison with the often hyperkinetic pacing of today's television, but that's one of its greatest strengths."

DVD Pick: Foyle's War

When television's best programs (e.g. Mad Men) go into seasonal hibernation, Netflix is a wonderful choice for those who won't settle for anything less than excellence. One of the great gems of Netflix is the recently concluded PBS/ITV classic Foyle's War. All nineteen episodes (about 90 minutes each) are now available on DVD.

World War II is the backdrop. In the foreground is Michael Kitchen's marvelous, understated portrayal of police Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle,, a widower and father solving crimes of all kinds in the town of Hastings. The locale has strategic significance and historic resonance -- 1066 and all that -- at a time when the possibility of invasion was on all minds. Not all the crimes relate directly to the war, but all the characters bear its weight. The series is a masterpiece of tone, with no overwrought music, graphical excess, or character histrionics.

Each episode stands alone, so you can pick and choose from this excellent online episode guide and website, or do what we've been doing, watch in sequence and follow unfolding developments in the war, and in the lives of the four regular characters. Produced over several years at a slow pace, the series is meticulously attentive to period detail. Writer Anthony Horowitz read hundreds of books to capture the attitudes, events, crimes, and details of everyday life during the era. Horowitz is young, but he writes with maturity and grace.

As a war story it is no polemic. Issues such as battle fatique, casualties, treatment of prisoners, suspicion due to ethnicity, the religious perspective, conscientious objectors, political agitators, profiteers, and much more come up in this or that episode. Underneath it all is a sense of common cause, and values like duty, compassion, and valor.

Foyle's War is one of the few great television programs of this decade, even in rerun. Watch when live TV is fixated on some trivial contest of celebrity or cultural voyeurism, and you will feel like you've taken the high road.

Remember When Buying a New TV Was Simple?

Calibration consisted of a twist of the tuning dial, or fitting the rabbit ears with a little Reynolds Wrap.

You didn't have to ask if the new TV would be compatible with the Yahoo! Widget Engine.
You didn't need to know if it had a USB or a ethernet jack, or decide whether to use component or HDMI instead of the now hopelessly outdated composite connectors.
You didn't have to know what edition of the "firmware" was built into your set, or how to get into the service menu, or whether the 9th digit in the serial number is an "A" (bad) or a "B" (good)

You didn't have to time the next $500 price drop, because your TV didn't even cost that much
You never wondered if you'd need an AM21 OTA add-on for your DirecTV HR23-700 HD DVR

And you didn't need bullet points to list what a complicated device your old TV had become.

Today -- not so simple. Use the links under "tv tech" to get up to speed on TV as a "new" medium.

2008 Broadcast Rookie of the Year

Watch out when Patrick Jane of The Mentalist shakes you hand. He's probably also taking your pulse. That's one reason why the light CBS drama is the most sucessful new program the broadcast networks' Fall 2008 schedules. Jane is an intriguing character, a former professional psychic who admits he was a fraud, and now uses his powers of observation, memory, and sensitivity to help the police. As played by Simon Baker, Jane charms the audience.

With The Mentalist, CBS re-discovers the tonal balance of hits past. Magnum PI, and Simon & Simon hit the top of the early 1980's ratings charts with light, bright mysteries. A big slice of the TV audience (especially international viewers, so important for profitability) prefers the bright skies and blue Pacific as backdrop for its mysteries. It never hurts ratings when the crime scene tape surrounds an upscale location.

This decade's new television's crime dramas often exceeded reasonable limits on the depiction of violence. Shock value replaced character revelation, gory close-ups racing inside wounds stood-in for the hyperkinetic chase scenes of B-dramas past, multiple murders facilitated unimaginative act breaks, and uplifting the audience was too often forgotten. The Mentalist has its serious moments, but the light tone predominates. The program isn't perfect, but the audience is showing patience with its flaws, eager to embrace the program's tone and its hero.

DirecTV, TiVo Planning HD DVR for 2009

TiVo is developing a new high definition digital video recorder for DirecTV, following a schism which had given customers the unpleasant choice between inferior house brand DVR software, or outdated image quality.

The new high-def DirecTV TiVo is expected to hit the market in the second half of 2009. Viewers who demand the best will finally be able to enter the high definition era with their most familiar and satisfying brands.

2008: Another Summer of Quality

Forget about Fall Premiere Week. Summer has become television's finest season, thanks to the superb offerings on basic cable. While the broadcast networks slavishly pander to what they believe (perhaps incorrectly) are the tawdry, immature tastes of the 18-49 demographic, basic cable is programming with respect for the intelligence of viewers young and old. Such is the advantage of a subscriber revenue stream.

AMC's Mad Men leads the pack, but it's not alone. Two established dramas have reclaimed the initial promise of their early episodes with strong runs during the Summer of 2008.

The Closer has matured nicely, with its prickly lead character growing less angry and a better manager of her team. And episode called "Dial M for Provenza" gave G.W. Bailey the chance to shine as he once did on St. Elsewhere. Jennifer Coolidge was hilarious in a guest role. It's great to find a drama that doesn't always take itself too seriously.

Jennifer Coolidge, G.W. Bailey, and Kyra Sedgwick in The Closer, "Dial M for Provenza"

Speaking of lightening up, Law & Order: Criminal Intent has also come out of a long depressing funk and gone back to police procedural basics. Detective Goren presumably has been unburdened of his dark side for future episodes. Chris Noth turned in a fine season of episodes, winding up his third tour of duty in the franchise. A top writer on the show has moved on, but let's hope his successors follow the pattern of this strong season.

Along with USA's Monk, now an established summer treat, and PBS' Masterpiece mysteries, including a final, splendid Foyle's War, the summer of 2008 provided a feast of quality drama for mature tastes.

In Praise of Mad Men, Outstanding Drama Series of 2007

Mad Men, a drama series set in a 1960 New York advertising agency, airs Sundays at 10PM on AMC.

What I appreciate most about Mad Men is its maturity. It is civilized, intelligent, and more interested in the human condition than in exploiting facile high stakes plot points.

I love that the series refuses to pander to the presumptions of today's advertising business about the audience, even as it explores the golden age of that industry. More than any show in history it draws you gracefully into its sponsorship, and that unique ad environment is often put to good use.

Mad Men respects the emotional maturity of its audience. It doesn't pound us with a relentless musical score. It doesn't rush us along, so we wait through a long focus group for one insight at the end which will launch a career. It is ruminative, yet it celebrates imaginative energy. Sexuality is everywhere, but it's gentle and understated, reflecting the shame and inhibition which our culture has since lost, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

The scene pitching the Kodak account in the Season One finale "The Wheel" has been heralded as one of the finest in the history of television. Small wonder Matthew Weiner was nominated twice in the writing category, once for the pilot, and again for the season finale.

Mad Men is true to the period, and it's thick with contrasts between that time and these, but never as object lessons. Dangers from cigarettes and alcohol to cellophane bags appear in the foreground, then disappear without driving home an immediate lesson like some overwrought David Kelley polemic. One minute you think the ad game is being mercilessly skewered, then the hero casually one-ups a group of critical bohemians.

It's a show you have to talk about when it's over. Did young women sometimes not know they were pregnant? Did a character anticipate those combined effects of booze, oysters and a "broken" elevator, and was that a just punishment for what preceded?

Much about the show has been justly praised: its authenticity, the lovely opening title sequence, the perfect casting. One of the small things I enjoy is that the characters read interesting, provocative authors like Marshall McLuhan and Ayn Rand, and occasionally talk about what they've read. Sometimes they just talk like people who read. On what other program would a secretary be reprimanded with the line "your decolletage is distracting"?

Here's hoping this rich, engaging program inspires other attempts to transcend the conventions of today's low aimed prime time serials. And here's hoping that Emmy recognition will draw in a wider audience to this show. Frasier proved that aiming high to a sophisticated audience doesn't necessarily mean that audience will be small.

Addendum: Since this early review Mad Men has become one of the most honored programs on television in this decade. Advertising Age magazine went so far as to create a special 1960 Mad Men issue.
Here's hoping Matt Weiner's masterpiece will be with us for many years to come ... 1963, '64, '65, '66, etc.

Ladies and Gentlemen ...

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Over the last few years GSN has done something wonderful for everyone with a DVR system like TiVo. During the middle of the night the network aired, in sequence, black and white episodes of the classic CBS panel show What's My Line? Star blogger James Lileks praised the series in an article, as did the Wall Street Journal in Robert J. Hughes' piece entitled "Oh, the civility!" This is no insignificant cult.

Those of us who followed loyally saw history move forward one week per night, from the early 1950's through 1967. It was a time of cultural transformation in America. World War II references, exaggerated formalism, and gender stereotyping gave way to Camelot fashions, references to twisting the night away, and more subtle redefinitions of urban sophistication. This was a time when a publisher, a columnist, a stage actress and a news broadcaster, all well into middle age, were the epitome of the urban "in crowd."

In early 2008 GSN began the rerun process anew.(Yes, the press noticed.) So every weeknight at Midnight (Pacific time) history will move forward by one week, with the help of the TiVo and GSN. Some manners and mores of 1958 don't look so bad seen from 50 years later. Judge for yourself.

editor's note: In March 2009 GSN abruptly stopped rerunning What's My Line?, ending during the shows of March 1960. We hope for its return, and yearn to see all those JFK era fashion shifts at least one more time.

Executive perspective --

WSJ: Would you want to run a movie company today?

Mr. Diller: No. Words like "tent pole" and "merchandising" have nothing to do with telling good stories. The current process of major film companies is so different than it was 10 or 20 years ago, and I find the output that comes from it far less interesting. It's a very hard business to get into, and I don't know why you'd make that choice rather than shoe manufacturing.

Creative perspective --

They say that television and comedy in television is changing," said Frasier Emmy winner David Hyde Pierce in 2004. "And I just want to say when it changes back, call me."

.
Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6 Season 7 Season 8 Final (11)

July 2009

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July 2009

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