The End of Brands

NY Times is cutting 100 newsroom jobs. Other newspapers are doing the same. They also said their NY TIMES OPINION app didn't really work out. Nobody subscribed. And that NY TIMES NOW an app aimed at younger viewers was not faring much better. So the question is why aren't people flocking to buy the NYTIMES on the digital format? The paper you understand but the digital format....could it be the end of brands as we know them.

The New York Times is the top of the mountain for a lot of people. But people get their news from so many sources now and like everything else brands are giving way to convenience. Take my class. Not only do a lot of them not have  cable but they aren't even watching television on their computers...they are watching it on their phones. And why is that? Because it is the easiest most convenient way to watch TV.

And there isn't a big rush to a particular show. Maybe some Kardashians. Maybe some Pretty Little Liars. The point is that the very ubiquitous nature of our entertainment maelstrom and our multiple sources for news precludes allegiance to a brand. Put another way. The NY TIMES can come up with fifty different apps. But it wont change the habits of one one eighteen year old picking up what is happening from twitter or snap chat or yahoo.

Whatever is easiest...right?

www.williamhazelgrove.com
 

NPR dribble

Big NPR fan but some of the stuff is straight dribble. Listening to Nina and the gang the other morning. Basketball deflections. Big story. Stats posted during half time. Who cares. I guess some other people do. Food fight. A child was hit in the eye with a cookie. John McCain saw someone climb over a fence at the border. A hospital decided not to pay for an expensive cancer drug. Some jobs coming back to Texas. These then were the chewy stories on the Morning Edition.

And of course . it was all dressed up in the NPR campy reporting. The guy who does it sounds like he is ten and it all sounds very relevant. But that is news now right? It sounds relevant and very important but it's not really. In fact most news has very little relevancy to our lives and a lot of it is not really news at all but opinion dressed up like fact. Or it is just fluff.

Take the basketball stats story. Deflections and their impact on the game. I don't know maybe I missed something but why is this a story. John McCain saw a lady climb the fence in Arizona and get arrested. Hmmm. I guess. It didn't have a thing to do with immigration reform but it was a lead story. Again. Who cares. The hospital that decided not to pay for an eleven thousand dollar cancer drug and then posted an op-ed about it. Wow. Groundbreaking. Then the drug company dropped the price by half. Ok.

Oh and oil demand could be tapering off by end of the decade. Natural gas and more fuel efficient cars. Wow.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
 

Holocaust Weather

Since when did weather become a news story? There is no normal weather now. Winter storms have been named. We are in the Apocalypse every time a thunder cloud appears. I was watching the news and they said a KILLER STORM was on the way to Chicago. I looked out the window and saw the snow coming down. It was beautiful. I turned back to the news. KILLER STORM IS HERE. A man in a heavy coat stood on a street in Chicago. The weather here is getting worse he said. I looked back out the window. A gentle snow fall. I turned back to the news. KILLER SNOW STORM IN CHICAGO.

Obviously someone figured out in ratings land that weather sells. And if mother nature doesn't agree then just add a little spin. Put a guy like Ali Veshi in lower Manhattan and have him find a really deep puddle and stand there. Or better yet drive him to the beach and have him stand in the surf. Then have him try and talk over the wind and the rain. Brilliant! THE KILLER STORM IS HERE. And Ali is braving the elements to bring us the latest.

In the Midwest our KILLER STORM is really tornado's. Spring. They come in the spring and we really do go in our basements and hide out when the sky turns green. The problem is that if every storm is a KILLER STORM you have a hard time figuring out what is really a KILLER STORM. Tornadoes still hit fast and they kill a lot of people. Funny how Ali Veshi is nowhere to be seen when there is a real tornado bearing down across the cornfields. I guess that is our new barometer.

No Ali Veshi. Run for cover.

www.billhazelgrove.com
Rocket Man...Scouting gone wrong