I'm not the most diligent reporter in the world, but I went searching for black local news and from what I can tell, ain't no more. From this point forward, when it comes to large enough news, if it ain't mainstream, it ain't happening.
Ever since I did my TVOne show a couple years ago I was intrigued to find why all of the best black produced political, news and information shows were on PBS and NPR. I didn't find a comprehensive answer today but I think the signs are clear. There's no money in it. Independent black news reporting in the next five years will take place on the web or it will not take place at all. In the words of Angela Bofill, it's time to say goodbye.
Today was the first annual Urban New Media Conference put together by Kevin Ross and the USC Annenberg School of Communication. A panel of notables, including, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Rolonda Watts, Rev Mark Whitlock, Karen Slade and Jasmyne Cannick were on hand to give an accounting of the state of things and what gives for the future. The state of affairs for traditional black media is bleak. I mean really, really bleak.
How Bleak?
Ebony and Jet have only one full-time photographer in the country. Shared between them. Radio One lost 60 million last quarter. Black Enterprise is laying off. There was a loss of about 20% of black radio stations and markets last year.
I think we are witnessing with black media what we witnessed with black banks. Understand that this is a particular type of extinction. The money just goes to other banks. Just like people from New Orleans just moved to other cities. But there will no longer be, if the current trend continues, no exclusive purchase of black owned media on black news and information. The entire practice, if not the idea, is going up in smoke.
I don't mean to suggest that this conference was a failure or some exercise in futility. What was palpably noticeable in this gathering was the absence of desperation. People came to this forum with agendas that did not depend on the forum. There was no feel of 'you people are not doing enough for the community'. It was more like, this is what the challenge is, how are you going to deal with it? If there was any one flaw with the conference itself, it was that sharp people in attendence might have liked to get more time to network in the space provided.
Of the panelists, it was my estimation that Rolonda Watts got it best. Now while my interest isn't in entertainment, she had an instant grasp of the fact that this new media works very well with her brand, and it is a brand down the long tail. There are only so many people who want to see a dance lesson with James Brown, but Rolonda knows that when she streams that video, her crowd is going to be there and she doesn't have to beg a network for airtime. What she has got may not be a mass market phenomenon, but it is a significant number of eyeballs on the web. So even if she were at the very end of her broadcast career, she has a long soft landing by monetizing her properties in the lower cost medium of the internet. You're not going to get huge media buys for those segments, but they're not sitting in a vault gathering dust either.
Local Radio + Local Blogging
What's of interest to me, whether or not there's a possibility that our economy and markets will support it, is a link between national news production and local news production in the new media. There's a sort of irrelevance black-owned media has at the national level. My example would be Soledad OBrien from CNN is going to gather all the ratings there are to be had when her special airs. Those black news producers on NPR or PBS if and when they get an opportunity will pale in comparison, and yet I am of the strong opinion that shows like Michel Martin's Barbershop would be a big hit if it could be done locally. What's required is a business model that understands the handoff.
Here's what I mean.
You take a local black radio station like KJLH. Extremely loyal following, but struggling in these tough times just like everybody else. They might not be able to get Colin Powell to drop by the station, but the Congressman from the district? Sure. There is plenty of pull that radio stations have locally, but when their audience wants them to get serious about news and politics they have to use the web the way the Netroots have. 50,000 listeners might be very small for a radio station, but it's huge for a community website and if you had 50,000 registered folks on a community website, there would be no issue that would escape notice. So how does black radio make the handoff to those bloggers and local politicos in the Netroots? That is what this kind of conference can facilitate.
Let me give you an example of the gap. When Jamiel's Law became a hot topic of discussion here in Los Angeles, I blogged about it and I spoke about it on Warren Olney's radio program. I also followed the issue in the online part of the LATimes. I didn't get an opportunity to follow up at any of the hearings or press conferences, but I think I saw pretty much everything that went on online. There was an energized, activated community around a hot political topic of broad interest and of special concern to blacks and latinos in Los Angeles County. A radio station like KJLH could have increased its connection to its audience and brought a great deal of focus and actual representation if they worked the issue in coordination with bloggers and online communities. I can't say that they didn't spend a good deal of time on that issue in their broadcast, but I don't listen. I do watch the web, and I know they weren't here.
There are no black issues but local issues. The question is, who owns access to those voices? Local radio working in tandem with online communities are the absolute best way. And the sharpest voices online will naturally syndicate themselves in the blogosphere. That's the way it works. Townhall.com is the proof. If black radio doesn't move soon to use their local cred to cover community politics on the web, they will lose the opportunity. It's really the only thing they have.
In 1984 or thereabouts, the Black Business Association, a bunch of us undergrads, took a field trip to Motown in Hollywood. At the time, only Michael Jackson was doing the video thing, but I'm pretty sure this was before his collab with John Landis on Thriller. Motown was getting no play from MTV, but it was made directly apparent to us that this was a business decision of Barry Gordy. He thought videos were an expensive waste of time and told his artists that they would not be getting any support for that. This was whispered to us in desperate tones. Of course the whisperers were right and Gordy was wrong, and the rest is history. If anybody thought black talent would get no play outside of Barry Gordy's Motown, they were dead wrong.
This relates to the web opportunity of local radio stations in this critical way. Now I might be wrong but I don't see how local radio promotes local talent in the music business. You can make money as a radio station playing hiphop and urban contemporary no matter what your location and if you're not playing the top national hits, you can't possibly be making any money. When it comes to listening to Snoop or whomever, I've got DJs at the club, iTunes, Cable, XM/Sirius, the record store, movies, video games, and cellphones. Eight ways into my ear that ain't radio, not to mention concerts and bootlegs at the barber shop. People are going to get their Beyonce on - music in local radio is a me-too game with a declining market share. But in any and every community, the opportunity to be the local personality on the air is a great driving factor and it is something that a local radio station can have a lock on - and while my focus is news and politics, it doesn't have to be that.
Still, it seems to me that local community activism and politics that does not get involved with an active online community of the local people is just asking to be co-opted by Soledad O'Brien and her editors and producers. They will decide what the coverage of X is going to be when it hits your neighborhood if the local radio station does not make that move to engage the community online.
An online community of eyewitnesses cannot be pushed around, but they can be accellerated and energized through synergy with local radio. And that's all the good news there is.
The bad news is that black radio in particular will fail to be significant if they don't make the connection. That means that program directors are going to have to find a way to connect with the right sort of online communities and/or bloggers. They're going to have to find a business model that takes advantage of the dynamics of the web and they're going to have to be smart about the way the technology is configured. It's a separate line of business with different cost structures.
I am of the opinion as I said above, that without this connection, there will be no black news. There will be no community ownership or control of the comings and goings of those communities, because quite frankly, a website that cannot get 100 comment threads on local issues cannot compete with newspapers which are failing anyway.
Again. If this particular extinction does take place, it will follow the course of everything else. The unique market and social conditions of communities will be subservient to national policies. Now in some ways that's a good thing. Nobody wants a Big Mac Philly Style. They want a Big Mac. But if all you have is McDonald's, then Philly Style disappears. You have to get critical mass in the convergence or else.
Let me close with one final word about money, and I want to talk to you mister black newspaper editor who's about to get laid off. If your skills are to mean anything, you need to take them to the web. The web will evolve an economic model that will get you paid a new way sooner than your newspaper will evolve an expanding market that will get you paid the old way. Your question is not if, but when. And if your interest and business has been local political and cultural news at the community level, then you have an obligation to do what you do best in this new medium. I would have liked to believe that there were lots of black news producers just twiddling their thumbs trying to get their content into mainstream and large networks - but I'm coming to believe that those people are few and far between. Meaning for black radio stations, maybe 75 news folks in the whole country. Online, that would be a juggernaut organization. But in declining local news markets, it ain't much.
Watch GM. They refused to downsize, lower their costs, revise their business models and now it's too late. Their hand has been forced. The internet is over 15 years old, there is no excuse.
Recent Comments