One of my favorite movie lines comes from the great 1980 film “Where the Buffalo Roam.” The film is very loosely based on a number of semi-autobiographical stories written by Hunter S. Thompson. In one scene Thompson, played by Bill Murray, has been kicked off the press plane while covering the 1972 presidential campaign of, presumably Richard Nixon.
However, after drugging a colleague he steals his clothes and credentials and manages to get on the crew plane. Later, while in disguise he finds himself in an airport bathroom when a group of secret service agents come in and carefully check the room and all the stalls. They leave and a moment later the candidate (Nixon,) played brilliantly by Rip Torn, walks in. Now, Thompson and Nixon are side-by-side at the urinal and Thompson engages Nixon in an impromptu Q&A. Eventually, Thompson asks Nixon “… What about the doomed?” To which Nixon replies, “Fuck the Doomed.”
So lately, after recalling that line during a recent conversation with Linda, I’ve sort of taken to applying a modified version of it, rather tongue-n-cheek, to my life and career.
Seriously, I work in the media industry in Los Angeles. A major newspaper. And it’s no secret that newspapers are in deep shit. The core readership of newspapers across the country have for the most part stayed the same for the past 50 years, which is to say that they are old. Young people don’t subscribe to, or purchase from racks, or even pick up free newspapers anymore.
Newspapers started getting their asses handed to them by television in the 1950s and circulation and readership has gradually sloped downward ever since. As that core readership actually go to their graves, there’s been no one to replace them. And the demise of the industry has only accelerated in the past 10 years with advent of the internet.
The industry was reluctant and pretty much powerless to go toe-to-toe with TV and even if they had a strategy, no one seemed to care. So we did nothing.
Now, with the end clearly in sight, we’ve begun to fight back. Look around, you’ll find that every newspaper, from the 2,000 circulation weekly in Enid, OK to the biggest New York freaking Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and every other former mega-paper in the U.S., has a website. And we all put a major effort into bringing our content to the site as fast and as comprehensively as possible. In fact, with what we call “newshole” constantly shrinking due to retreating ad sales, often we put more content on the websites than actually appears in print.
In our newsroom the mantra is “More Cowbell,” a semi-lame reference to an old SNL skit where Christopher Walken cried for more cowbell during a Blue Oyster Cult performance. What it’s come to mean to us is, internet first. Print is secondary.
This is a strange scenario for most of the seasoned journalists who have spent 20 years, 30 years and more bleeding ink onto that toilet paper we call newsprint.
Of course it’s not just newspapers that are in trouble. Our old foe television is losing their ass as well. They now have to do battle with us, the internet and cable and satellite TV as they watch their ratings and ad revenue spin down the drain. Magazine circulation is down. Radio listeners are going away.
Fewer people care about news and information and those that do get it every 30 seconds on their cell phone or PDA or they pick it up from a satellite feed on a chip surgically implanted in their rectum.
Again, none of this is any surprise to anybody. I think most people are sick of hearing the media industry bemoan their own demise so they crank up the iPod and ignore the fact that 3,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq not to mention nearly a million Iraqis.
And I don’t have any problem with or resentment about the internet taking over the world. Who could argue with the best thing to happen to mass communication, ever? The fact that you are reading this is, well, evidence that you and I are, at this very moment, embracing it.
The problem, if there is one, lies in the simple word demographic. That word may be the literary equivalent of the having your nostrils tied to the bumper of Prius with dental floss.
You will hear that word uttered in every meeting room in every industry in the U.S. nearly every day. What are we all talking about?
The jewel in the crown of advertising, the brass ring of sales executives, the holy grail of demographics is … 18-25.
If you’re 18-25, you can leave now and surf over to TMZ.com.
What I want to know is, what is our obsession with this group? I think I understand that if you as an industry are able to capture people in this group, then your chances of keeping them interested in your product or service when they actually grow up and get a job and have expendable income, are increased.
But don’t people in positions of power realize that this group has no money? They can afford a comic book or maybe a CD but they aren’t going to fly business class on your airline or buy your new hybrid SUV or plasma HDTV.
Do you think the two young men in the photo above are currently shopping for any new appliances or booking any hotels in Cancun? If not, then why do we; newspapers, TV, Cable TV, Radio, Magazines, advertising agencies, Macy’s, Ford Motor Company, Apple Computer (OK, maybe they shouldn’t be in this group,) care about appealing to them?
I ask you.