For the last 10 years, even more so in the last 10 months, analysts, experts, and those with no real opinion other than what the numbers tell them, have all been trying to make sense of the train wreck that is broadcast and print media in America. I recently pored over a much-too-long diatribe from one of these experts, spouting all the research numbers, ratings charts, and interwoven financial mucking about in order to make his point when, in essence, that could have been made in one simple sentence. A lack of vision and exceptional greed from management has altered the media landscape forever, and not for the better of any intelligent audience.
Let's do this without all the confusing numbers and graphs that most people can neither understand nor care to be schooled in, shall we? The American newspaper industry burned itself to the ground by failing to understand the need for subscriptions and emerging media as the main part of their offering. The big news guns gave their material away in the early and heady days of the internet, and thus made their readership complacent in the belief that all this wonderful news was free and advertiser supported.
It was a model for disaster.
In the actual print day, there were plenty of ads, but people also paid for their newspaper, and no one grumbled. That's because the price was fair, the content was relevant, and the aim of the newspaper was to deliver actual news and entertainment. Being caught completely unaware by the internet, newspapers rushed to get their editions out there on the web, and for free. The lack of vision, something we'll see a lot in this story line, and a lack of even seeking to understand the new medium was a death knell from the start.
So when they saw their bottom lines collapsing and realized the only way to stay afloat was to have people pay for the digital editions, there were already innumerable outlets to get the same news for free. Most of those were blatant theft, as many websites garnered attention using links to legitimate sites and not paying anything for the privilege. In essence, there was no putting the genie back in the bottle. Sure, newspapers had real journalists and actual news judgement, but as the revenues dropped, so did those staffs of excellent reporters and writers, leading us to where we are today.
Newspaper platforms and management also failed miserably when it came to having imagination and staying on top of emerging digital media trends, such as simple video and audio. There was an arrogance from many newspaper platforms that the printed word was sacrosanct, and damned if they would "cheapen" their product in bowing to what was essentially the hated TV and radio broadcasters.
Don't kid yourself, fellow minions. To this day there remains plenty of seething animosity between ink-stained wretches and electronic press.
By the time newspaper management caught up with the digital and online explosion, they were already buried. Sure, there are some newspaper platforms that make a go of it with subscriptions, but outside of the major conglomerate-owned sites, mid level and regional sites are suffocating. Many have already been forced to surrender with not enough subscribers and management that couldn't give one spit about real journalism over profits. Sure, everyone should be making a profit and paid for their craft. However, the level of insatiable greed among these media robber barons is obscene. That, however, is a tale for another day.
The sins of radio reflect even more greed and corporate mismanagement. The evisceration of WCBS Newsradio 880 in New York City is a mighty blow to the industry, but eminently foreseeable.
Current signal owner Audacy has been a gold standard for media mismanagement. Forced into bankruptcy after making a terrible business decision to absorb CBS stations in 2017, Audacy backed itself into a corner and was left with no decision other than to start renting out powerful signals to shoe media companies willing to cough up the price. Instead of plowing their money and efforts into making their owned stations successful by taking less in profit, their greed overtook their sense of responsibility to the medium. I mean, ask yourself how in one calendar quarter, a company can roll out more than $260M in profit only to still be bleeding cash and begging for the sympathy of relative"poverty"?
Audacy owned both all-news radio stations in NYC, WCBS and 1010 WINS, both of whom are legendary in that market and the industry. Something had to give, and despite the fact WCBS was still one of the top billing radio stations in America, that 50,000 watt clear signal up and down the East Coast was worth more than trying to manage 2 stations going after an identical audience. So then, another greedy radio robber baron, Good Karma Broadcasting, rolled in with deep pockets and did what they've done to a number of stations across America. Cut the manpower costs, take a scalpel to original local programming, fire professionals on both sides of the mic, and replace them with syndicated, (read: FREE), network programming from ESPN Radio. Again, another story for another day on how syndicated sportstalk radio has become the cockroaches of a once-proud industry.
This was all inevitable, and anyone looking with clear vision should have seen it coming for years. Audacy, GKB and many others, simply don't care about quality programming, or the lives of those who have made their bosses billions of dollars. Human talent is the most dispensable element in broadcast media, much like it is in a number of other professions. Never in my career have I and so many others been so impacted in watching our friends and colleagues at WCBS detail their final days at the station. Exceptional, incredible, loyal and impactful journalists, reporters, technical staff and others, now forced to find new positions in what is a media wasteland. Those tears shed were real. These companies take listeners for suckers, knowing they can put up anything with a controversial pulse, and people will fall for it. Don't get me started on political talk and the dark pit it has helped turn American radio into over the last 20 years.
Five years ago I spoke with several close friends working in major market radio, and I warned them to get out. Immediately. At the very least start making plans for the day when there would be no current job, when corporations would consolidate and turn the switches on syndication, and there simply would not be anywhere to turn for employment in the radio and broadcast industry. I begged them to think hard about the future.
None of them acted, and now, sadly, they are all out of work and struggling. They are no less talented now than they were back then, but they are castoffs by a greedy corporate machine.
Newspapers and radio are not exclusive to this club run by fiscal vermin. Venerable "Time" magazine recently put more people out of work, again a fallout of lacking vision and seeking to manage without having to terminate careers. Paramount, the legendary film and broadcast content production studio, is slicing and dicing staff to make up for their years of fiscal mismanagement.
The singular thread that runs through all of these instances, and many more in the media world? No one at the top level of management is losing a nickel. All are reaping record setting payouts as they set people adrift due to their greed.
Following record setting rating and advertiser revenue from the Super Bowl in 2024, more than 800 people were booted frmo Paramount Global. While there were changes to follow in the hierarchy, you damn sure better believe that despite "record losses", they all hit the ground softly with their parachutes.
I wish it was simple to ask viewers and readers to support their local outlets, to be more discerning in what they watch and listen to. However, that doesn't go far at all in the current medis landscape. Corporate raiders, those who have not a single care for quality programming and journalism, will only continue to bury the mediums for their own profit.
There are more freight trains on the tracks. Their headlights are on, nd they are barrelling toward more crossroads of content calamity.
You, the listener, the reader, and the viewer, are being taken for suckers.
It's up to you to make the choices that will not just save industries and jobs, but to ensure you are smarter and more informed in the process.
Ed Berliner has reached the point in his life and career where taking the powerful to task holds no fear, so all those "You'll never work in this business again!" emails he gets are a waste of typing. Stay informed frmo someone and his friends who have been there before by subscribing to "Shakedown Street" for "Dirty Laundry" and more no-nosense and no misinformation commentary. SUBSCRIBE TO "SHAKEDOWN STREET" HERE.
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