Loss

        Much has been rightly made of the death of Tim Russert, and the hole he has left in journalism. I didn't know Tim well, but I met with him on a number of occasions during my years at MSNBC. Right after I started, I was summoned to Washington to Tim's office.

        I was there to discuss about how the producers at MSNBC, which I was now charged with overseeing, interacted with the producers and on-camera talent from the Washington bureau, which Tim ran. I left with a cogent list of marching orders. He was passionate about news, fiercely loyal to NBC News in particular, and extraordinarily competitive. The fact that he died suddenly and at the peak of his influence, heightened the sense of loss.

        In the days since his death, I've had a number of conversations with people who were once making daily journalism and, for a number of reasons, now aren't. While their absence from journalism isn't headline-making, and certainly not tragic, the loss of them from the field does underscore the treacherous perils facing the business of journalism.

        While these are exciting times for creative multi-faceted content creators, there is a danger that we are losing a generation of smart, experienced producers, reporters, and news executives because of the tsunami of layoffs and downsizing brought about by the diminution of journalism, both in newspapers and on television.

        Every great journalistic business thrives partly on of the interplay of institutional memory and cutting-edge innovation. When the memory goes away, and the innovation is not rooted to a solid foundation, there is danger of loss of context, an appreciation for what was. In other words, the best organizations are a mix of experience and seasoning, innovation and youth.

        A couple of weekends ago, I met a former high-ranking newspaper managing editor with a long and distinguished resume. His insights about the state of journalism were sharp and nuanced. He was a delight to spend time with. He's maybe 60, youthful and energetic. I could easily imagine him in the newsroom, urging his staff on to excellence. But, as he told me, those days are behind him, as he pursues a second career in publishing.

        "I don't miss the newsroom, not with what it's become: managing cutbacks and worrying about things other than the news. When I was a managing editor, we believed there was room in this country for excellent regional papers, just under the great newspapers: The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Nobody talks that way anymore."

        I had lunch the other day with a former boss of mine from my days in cable news. He's in his early fifties now and was a terrific newsman and a creative television producer for decades. His line of credits extends from executive-producing network newscasts to running syndicated programming. He made coming to work fun, and challenging. Yet he, too, is out of journalism now. Instead, he runs a major web-based business. He's bringing that same sense of spirit and adventure that was once integral to almost every news operation to his new digital endeavors. When I asked him if he misses the chase of daily broadcast journalism, he broke out into a wide smile:

        "Are you kidding? I'm running a business, learning new things everyday, right on a cutting edge. Miss the sniping and the politics and ever-present threat of the cutbacks? No way."

        We can't be steeped in nostalgia for the sepia-washed good old days. We have to keep moving ahead and trying new things. But, at a time when the business of journalism is under siege as never before, there should be room for these folks like my friends. It's not that they miss journalism: as with Tim Russert, journalism is missing them.

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Digital World, Analog Dad

        We made our way along the Patriot's Path, my wife and I, in Morristown, NJ, past winding creeks and damp underbrush. I spied a turtle, and instinctively got down on my haunches, as our son, now 24, would do when he was a child, and went "SHHHH!."  My wife knew what I was doing and laughed; for 20 years my son had admonished me during our nature walks that I was scaring away the wildlife. Though I was immensely enjoying this laid-back Sunday, hiking and later taking in dinner in a quiet New York City, because it was Father's Day, I felt acutely the absence of both my kids. And Father's Day is a day when all of the digital gadgets that allow us to stay in touch somehow don't add up to a family barbecue. I considered sulking.

        To be sure, my son called from his cell phone in India where he and his girlfriend are wrapping up a year of travel: India, Nepal, Uganda, Kenya and Israel.  We GChat regularly, talk cell-phone to cell-phone occasionally, e-mail every week, and I check Flickr often to see if they've uploaded new pictures from their adventures. Immersed as my son is in his travels, I wasn't expecting him to remember Father's Day, a uniquely American and thus commercial holiday, but he did. His teen years were difficult for both of us, and didn't always bring out my best instincts or his. But, gradually, we've learned to revel in what's terrific about the other and to become more tolerant about what's crazy-making about the other. His call reminded me how much I miss him and love him and how when he returns, we'll hope to pick up on the progress towards a mature relationship we were making when he left last year.

        The day before Father's Day, our 17-year-old daughter invited us on what she called "a Father's Day bike ride." When I mentioned that Sunday the 15^th was actually Father's Day, she paused for a second.

        "I know that, Dad, but I'm busy with friends tomorrow."

        Two of her friends--sisters--lost their father recently, and this was the first Father's Day that they wouldn't be with him. My daughter decided that she would organize an informal lunch for her two friends. She didn't make a big deal out of it. She just did what she knew to be right, and assumed we'd understand.

        My daughter heads to college a year from this September. She and I communicate through text, e-mail and cell phone, which will become our primary mode of communication once she moves away. But, even as she moves towards independence and even with all the ways technology allows us to be in constant touch, I'm still partial to seeing her in person every day.    

        Back on the walking trail with my wife on Father's Day, the melancholy I felt from longing to spend the day with my kids in person soon morphed into something else. Yes, we were alone, just the two of us, on a day when others were surrounced by their children.  But, during those fleeting years when our children's world revolved around us, in between the hurried dinners and Little League games, the car trips and the homework, we had evidently taught them the importance of being open to the world, to be loyal to the ones you care about, and always to do the right thing. The world may be increasingly digital, but our relationships--the important ones--are traditional, analog, real and messy, robust and satisfying.

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Mash-Up or Collision

        Last week, I participated in a Radio and TV News Directors Foundation panel commemorating the journalistic life and times of the seminal 20^th Century broadcast journalist, Edward R. Murrow. While the first night focused on Murrow and his legacy from those who knew him best--including his son, Casey--the rest of the event shifted forward to what the networks and their local counterparts must do if they are to compete and thrive in this digital age. The discussions, held at the regal McCormick estate, Cantigny, near Chicago, were erudite, reasoned and thoughtful.

        And this week, I rocked out at the annual Webby Film and Video Awards in New York, celebrating TitanTV's Webby People's Voice Award for TitanGreens.com, our sassy and witty collection of environmental programs.  TitanTV VP and General Manager Laura van Straaten, host Liza de Guia, Senior Producer Morgan Jones and I rubbed shoulders with--well, we were in the same room as--the well-known (SNL's Lorne Michaels, actress Rosie Perez, et al.), the somewhat well-known (30 Rock's Judah Friedlander, who hosted the event, et al.) and those who became known for doing things on YouTube (crooner Tay Zonday of "Chocolate Rain" fame, et al.). The awards ceremony was held at NYU's Skirball Center overlooking Washington Square; then the party moved to a trendy space--formerly a synagogue--on the Lower East Side. There was little introspection, just lots of creative work being rewarded with acceptance speeches of five words (Liza's thank-you for TitanGreens.com was "Gore's hilarious love child accepts").

        I marveled at the breadth and depth of the work honored: from Hometown Baghdad, which vividly explores what happens when war comes to your neighborhood, to The Onion's fake newscasts that brilliantly ape the worst of  cable news blather. We met a high school junior who won a People's Voice Webby for San Ramon Valley High School. She directed a video on the lack of affordable housing in the Bay area. Her parents were beaming.

        If there was fretting about the future, I didn't hear it or see it or feel it.

        Back at the Murrow event, I was on a panel exploring how local television stays relevant and profitable at a time when news is becoming a commodity, available everywhere, at any time. Of course, how stations continue to be a trusted local resource and valuable advertising vehicle is a critical issue.

        Attending the conference were veterans older than I, a goodly number of boomers like myself who share the same cultural and political touchstones, and a group of younger professionals. At the Webbys, I nodded sympathetically to the beaming father of the California teenager. We, along with a scattering of others, were vastly outnumbered by those in their twenties.

        Are these two events evident of a collision of cultures and entertainment forms that the Webby generation has already won? Is it truly over for the generations that built their careers first emulating Murrow, then Watergate's Woodward and Bernstein? Has the sun already set on the networks and the locals, only they don't know it yet?

        Not necessarily.

        Traditional media--television and radio and print--still dwarfs new media when it comes to advertising dollars. And let's not forget: a lot of new media is owned by such 20^th century mainstays as NBC (which owns Hulu) and FOX (MySpace). One of the multiple winners at the Webbys in various online video categories was The New York Times.

        It would be naïve to believe, however, that all of the traditional media will survive this new age. There will be casualties. Thus far, the cool, outside-the-box journalists and producers who work for such video content companies as TitanTV Media and "Chat the Planet" which produces Hometown Baghdad are generally not the same kind of folks who want to work in the corporate structure of a newsroom.  While there are television stations and groups that embrace change, overall, it comes slowly. A very smart new media executive, whose company works with local television stations, expressed frustration to me the other day about some of his dealings inside stations: "They still don't get it. They still try to hold stories for the 6 P.M. news, rather than get it on their web site immediately. They don't understand that it's not about a scheduled newscast, but about their overall brand." In many markets, the so-called dinosaur newspapers have equipped their staffs with small cameras and are often getting video on their sites sooner than television stations do on theirs.

        Local television plays a vital role in our communities. For that role to continue, smart executives and producers have to understand that the world has changed radically over the past few years.

        Just ask Tay Zonday.

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Murrow, and the End of Generalism

        For the last few months, I've been living with legendary CBS News reporter and anchor Edward R. Murrow. Well, living with his words and his legacy.

        Earlier this year, I was asked by the Radio and TV News Directors Association to write a piece for their magazine, The Communicator, on  the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of Murrow's "Wires and Lights in a Box" speech. In that seminal speech Murrow took the networks to task for not scheduling more serious news and information documentaries in prime time. My take mixed the personal--growing up during the reign of Murrow in the 1950s and 60s, when he had no peer in broadcast journalism--with my experience running a digital media company today.

        Shortly after my article came out, I was asked to participate in a panel discussion at the RTNDA Conference in Las Vegas on the same subject. One  purpose of the panel was to debate whether Murrow's warnings still had relevance in a world where content is readily available on multiple platforms. I argued that in contrast to Murrow's era, where there were three networks and a couple of local stations per market, we now live in a time where it's never been easier for smart consumers of news and information to stay informed. There's a world of documentaries, blogs, cable channels, news sites and opinion destinations--too many to keep track of.

        Now, I'm getting ready for my third Murrow event this year. This week I participate in a Radio and TV News Director's Foundation Summit in Chicago.  The event is called "Wires and Lights in a Box: Murrow's Legacy and the Future of Electronic News," sponsored by the McCormick Foundation. It will include panels on: the balance between entertainment and news; the importance of an impartial press; business pressures facing the industry; and (the panel I'm on) ideology/partisanship in the press versus an impartial press.

        As I've started to prepare for the summit, I've had some additional thoughts--second thoughts would be too strong--around the whole topic of how easy it is to stay informed in this get-it-now world.  While there is no question that more news and information is instantly and readily available to the average citizen than at any time in history, it's also true that the digital age has allowed us to burrow only into what interests us--and to remain ignorant of everything else. That's a big change from how it used to be.

        In the analog era, a few editors, mostly white men in the media capital of New York City, decided what we would read in the daily paper and what stories would be on the network evening newscasts. People read broad-based magazines like Life and Time and Reader's Digest. Even local and regional papers were largely informed by the same wire stories from the Associated Press and United Press International. Most people were generalists in what they took in. Other than trade publications (far fewer than these days), most people were pretty much exposed to the same media.

        Today, it's easy to create an environment where all that you are digesting--news, video, blogs, etc.--is only about basket-weaving, or comic books, or hip-hop, or domestic politics. As established news sites make it easier to grab content and customize it on your MySpace or Facebook page or your own blog with its own URL, it becomes even easier to create these hermetically-sealed worlds based around those things that you are very interested in.

        Most of that is great. My son is a committed environmentalist, two years out of college. Through his online world of environmental networking, news and job sites, he discovered a research project on chimps in Uganda that was affiliated with the Jane Goodall Institute. He actively pursued it, and after a series of online and phone interviews, late last year, he spent four months in Africa tracking chimps and how their behavior and stress levels were affected by encroaching development. The only way he found out about such a specialized project was because he was digitally plugged into that world.

        Now, in my son's case, his interests extend beyond his main passion. He follows politics and sports and indie music. But, for everyone like my son, there are, I suspect, many more who use the online ramp to focus mainly on one guilty pleasure: Hollywood celebrity misdeeds, for example. When that happens--when the internet facilitates people dropping out of society and citizenship at large, when it makes it easy not to be a generalist with a general sense of what's going on in the world, the fabric of a well-informed democracy frays just a little more.

        The gadget that you read this on is really just an updated version of Murrow's characterization of television as "wires and lights in a box." Technology allows us the platform; what we do with it, and what we make of it, is still up to us.

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I Feel the Earth Move

        As a kid, I always wondered what it would have been like to live during a time of great drama and discovery--to be there  when Columbus landed in America, say, or when the Founding Fathers ratified the Constitution. History was taught in a more black and white way when I was a kid than it is today, with a surfeit of dates and facts but little context, and in my childish naiveté I assumed that great events brought about instant change. One day you were part of one world, and the next day everything changed. No doubt movies and television also helped buttress this simple world view.

        As I grew older and better educated, my comic book sense of history became refined. Through a close reading of American history, I came to realize that one era didn't magically or easily transform into another. These were tectonic shifts--that is, they were epic--but as such they often occurred slowly, sometimes imperceptibly, over time. Some of these shifts vibrated in your bones, and others you realized only in hindsight.

        I lived through the 1960s--attended anti-war rallies, spent rain-soaked weekends camping out at Woodstock-type rock concerts, watched friends freak out on LSD--but was only vaguely aware sometime during the early-to-mid seventies that things were fundamentally calming down, that an era had passed. If there was a seminal moment, it was the resignation of Richard Nixon and the swearing-in of the benign Gerald Ford. Of course, being married and putting on a tie every morning also played a role in that perception.     

        Now we're living through another radical shift, the shift from the analog world to the digital one. It seems there's nothing gradual about it. Some days, it feels like it takes everything just to keep your balance as the plates realign.

        Newspapers are struggling to survive. Huge companies that own television stations are ordering cuts in personnel that are breathtaking. Groups of stations are taking advantage of technology and creating single hubs to service all of their production and post-production needs. At least one company is outsourcing the creation of on-air graphics to India.

        Usually the hemorrhaging of dollars in one media sector is accompanied by robust growth in another (Think radio, when television burst onto the scene). But right now, despite the explosion of digital media--from Facebook to YouTube to rich newspaper sites like nytimes.com--advertising revenues are running far behind. In other words, the old media model is still running on fossilized fuels, but no one has successfully invented all the pieces of a new, efficient, and clean media ecosystem. Hence the panic and confusion.

        I have no doubt that over time, as the various parties invested in the digital space agree on metrics and measuring and value, a new order will emerge that will  bridge the gap between the world that was and the world that will be. Between now and then, you'll see all kinds of experimentation, as savvy programmers look for ways of connecting audiences and advertisers with great content.

        The various productions of TitanTV are all designed to be advertiser-friendly:

• The Webby Award winning TitanGreens.com, which includes "Daily Greens" with Liza de Guia, a sassy and irreverent look at the environmental news of the day;
• RevYOU and Recap Theatre, where comedian Grace Randolph is your one-stop shopper for what's at the cineplex and on your television;
• And "Love Somerville," with Glamour Magazine columnist Michael Somerville, with how guys really think about relationships.

        And, we are achieving success with advertisers and station groups who see this kind of content as enhancing their brand and attracting advertisers. It's exciting to be breaking new ground: nobody has ever done quite what we're doing in the way we're doing it.

        With that excitement, of course, comes risk.  But the real risk is in playing it safe, standing still, and falling into the gaps between those grinding plates.

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A Celebration of Innovation

        Where do creative ideas come from? Why are some organizations innovative and others slog through in a muddle?  What kind of atmosphere is conducive to creativity and ingenuity? The current issue of The New Yorker is devoted to innovation in all of its infinite varieties. "Blink" author Malcolm Gladwell writes about how there are many fathers (sorry, not lots of mothers) to the great inventions of our time, which leads to the conclusion that certain breakthroughs are just ready to happen. There's a wonderful piece on a woman who has conducted breakthrough research on teaching parrots to communicate. There's a profile of a man who has turned airbrushing into high art. 

        I think a lot about creativity--and how to nurture it. As a boss, I often walk a fine line between giving people room to be great--and having to deliver concrete results to shareholders and advertisers. The trick--and it is a trick, not an art--is to create a supportive structure that energizes the participants and allows them to do their best work. But, I always reserve the right to make mid-course corrections at the very least, and wholesale changes at the very most. Some employees react well to this concept--and others don't.

        I always think about the bosses who inspired me to go out on creative limbs, to aspire to be great--and what they were like. The man whom I succeeded as Vice President of News for Post-Newsweek Stations,  the late Jim Snyder, always pushed me to be my best, and would be critical of my work when it wasn't. But, I always felt his support, and I never (well, almost never) took the criticisms as anything other than constructive. I always wanted to give him my best, because I felt I couldn't let him down. He knew how to unleash my creative juices, and I studied how he motivated me, and applied what I learned from him to motivate others-- to this day.

        I've also learned from bosses who suck all the air out of the room. I worked for one  news executive who thought that he had all the answers and we were all there to carry out his bidding. Needless to say, those of us who reported to him quickly realized that we could never come up with an idea that--in his estimation--was as good as something he hatched up. It's not hard to imagine what happened next: We stopped giving him our best ideas.

        Here at TitanTV, one of the innovations I'm most proud of is TitanGreens.com. I knew there was room for a daily, crisp look at environmental news. But, what I originally had in mind was not what you see now at TitanGreens.com. That's because Laura van Straaten, Morgan Jones, and our great host and environmentalist, Liza de Guia, had much better ideas. Ideas that involved comedy, character development, and irreverent sass.  Check out Daily Greens, Planet Police, Media Mulch and Versus--all on TitanGreens.com, or one of our great local affiliates. This week, we learned that we won a Webby Award for our efforts. That's the Internet's version of The Academy Awards or the Grammies. I'm proud to consider these folks and the folks who shoot and edit the pieces my colleagues. They are all innovators in this still nascent field of digital journalism.

        If you want to read more about the award, here's the press release:

TITANTV’S TITANGREENS.COM ECO-COMEDY SHOWS WIN 2008 WEBBY
PEOPLE’S VOICE AWARD FOR PUBLIC SERVICE AND ACTIVISM

New York, NY -- May 7, 2008 -- The global web community has voted to award TitanTV's TitanGreens.com comedic video shows about climate change a 2008 Webby People's Voice Award for "Public Service and Activism." TitanGreens.com's content was the only nominee devoted to climate change in its category.

Hailed as the "the Internet's highest honor" by the New York Times, the Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including web sites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web sites. The Webby Awards is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-person judging academy whose members include Internet co-inventor Vinton Cerf, R/GA's Chief Bob Greenberg, "Simpsons'" creator Matt Groening, Arianna Huffington, and Harvey Weinstein.

"The Webby Awards honors the very best of the Internet," said David-Michel Davies, executive director of the Webby Awards. "TitanGreens.com's win is a testament to the skill, ingenuity, and vision of its creators."

This year, nearly 500,000 votes were cast by people around the world for their favorite sites, videos and ads in the Webby People's Voice Awards. The 12th Annual Webby Awards received a record 9,500 entries from over 60 countries and all 50 states. Winners will be honored at two star-studded ceremonies in New York City: the Webby Film & Video Awards on June 9th and the 12th Annual Webby Awards Gala on June 10th. A full list of both Webby Awards and People's Voice Awards winners can be found at http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=12 .

"Our content team is thrilled about our shows winning," said Laura van Straaten, vice president of content and general manager for TitanTV and head of the team that created TitanGreens.com. "TitanGreens' non-preachy approach provides proof that environmentalists really do have a sense of humor. It's great to be recognized for that."

TitanGreens is a block of hip and edgy environmental short-form videos broadcast by online syndicator TitanTV and created under COO Mark Effron's and van Straaten's leadership with host and producer Liza de Guia and senior producer and head writer Morgan Jones. The production team includes Patrick Andrews, Allison Jacobs, Rebecca Hudziak and Brandon Whalen. Programming includes:

• "Daily Greens"- Fresh servings of environmental news, served up with a healthy dash of sass and attitude.
• "Planet Police"- An unscripted narrative mockumentary series about a not-so-dynamic duo who'll stop at (almost) nothing to take down eco-criminals who live life on the wasteful side.
• "Media Mulch" - A down and dirty roundup of the coolest and greenest videos, blogs and gizmos you can find online.
• "Versus"- The eco-lowdown that busts the myths, in a funny fashion, on which products and services are the greenest choices for consumers: Bottle vs. Can. Plane vs. Car. Plastic wrap vs. Foil.

"We're delighted that our quirky approach to eco-activism has been recognized by our fans and by the green community worldwide," said head writer and senior producer Morgan Jones, who also plays Sgt. Patrice Underwood in "Planet Police."

"There's no reason we can't all have a good time and be as hilarious as possible while we're trying to save the planet," said Liza de Guia who hosts and stars in all the TitanGreens.com shows and also serves as a producer.

Founded in 1996, the Webby Awards are known worldwide for their famous five-word speech limit. Past headline-grabbing speechmakers include Al Gore ("Please don't recount this vote"), Beastie Boys ("Can anyone fix my computer?"), and Prince ("Everything you think is true.")

About TitanTV

TitanTV is a worldwide source for local, original and user-generated content and is syndicated on the web sites of more than 1,000 television stations. TitanTV thus provides advertising solutions and revenue generating opportunities for local TV stations nationwide, while being an online resource for millions of users seeking unique content and local TV listing information. In its continuing effort to enable local TV web sites to remain competitive, TitanTV Network offers local broadcasters original entertaining programming, packaged inside a hosted online video player, along with an easy-to-use content management system.

Visit www.TitanTV.com for detailed product and programming information and for professional backgrounds on the company's principals.

About The Webby Awards:

Hailed as the "Oscars of the Internet" by the New York Times , the Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including web sites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web sites. Established in 1996, the 12th Annual Webby Awards received a record 9,500 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. The Webby Awards is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Sponsors and Partners of the Webby Awards include: Adobe; The Creative Group; Nokia; .ORG; The Barbarian Group; Level3; Adweek; Fortune; Variety; Wired; IDG: Brightcove; PricewaterhouseCoopers; 2advanced.Net; KobeMail and Museum of the Moving Image.

 

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We Won The People's Voice Award Webby! Thanks for your support.

        This all-important campaign seems to be going on forever, with strong partisans on each side making the case for their respective candidates. Consumers are being blizzarded by e-mail and buttonholed by friends to voice their support and cast their vote correctly; because, the stakes are high. The eventual winner becomes the next....recipient of the People's Voice Webby Award in the category of "Public Service and Activism."

        Wait...you didn't think I was referring to that other race between some woman who used to be First Lady and some guy from somewhere in the Midwest, did you?  Here at TitanTV, we have set up a situation room, have phone banks working 24/7, and are activating the base to bring that People's Voice Webby Award home to TitanTV, where it no doubt belongs. True, the situation room is really the situation desk, and we have no phone banks, but we really do want to win.

        There is only ONE Webby award nominee in the category of "Public Service and Activism" that addresses climate change and other environmental issues, and that's TitanGreens.com. Plus, we never preach, often entertain, and we're getting lots of great attention from the national press for our efforts.

        I don't want to malign the other nominees, and we will not run a negative campaign, but the folks behind TitanGreens,
Liza de Guia,   

Morgan Jones

 

and Laura van Straaten are the best in their field. They are smart and creative, committed to environmental journalism, but turned off by self-righteousness, pomposity, and those who take themselves too seriously. They've created a kind of daily journalism that owes as much to Jon Stewart and company as it does to more traditional forms of storytelling. You won't find anything else quite like it.

        You have to vote by midnight of May 1st.. Here's how you do it:

        1) Register by clicking here: http://pv.webbyawards.com/­account/signup
        2) Once you confirm that registration via email, click on "Online Film & Video"
        3) Go to the category of "Public Service and Activism" and vote for TitanTV's TitanGreens.com.

        Do your civic duty today. We're the only folks out there doing this kind of work.

        Then, you can start focusing on that other race.

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Get Back

        The headlong rush of life in these still-opening years of the 21st century has a distinctly digital glow to it. Answers have to be relayed NOW. We stay in instant contact with our co-workers and family members through email accounts and text messaging. Videos hurtle through the ion-charged atmosphere to iPhones.

        There are days where I'd rather lose my wallet than my BlackBerry; money can be borrowed, and credit cards replaced but my BlackBerry has become my brain, the repository of all that I'm doing and have to do. It remembers my daughter's cell phone number and where I have to be at 3 PM.

        We Twitter and Flickr with nary a thought of how minute or how mass our audience is, with how many people we are sharing our passing thoughts, or the images of our lives. Yesterday while touring Boston-area universities with our daughter, one tour guide, upon passing the campus bookstore, felt the need to tell the group: "Nobody buys books there--we all use Amazon."

        As we visit campuses, I was reminded how much things have changed since we did the college circuit with her older brother seven years ago.  Wireless is now ubiquitous, which means that things which once required students making a trip to the library can now be done while prone on a picnic blanket in the quad while soaking up the springtime sun. Almost everyone seemed Bluetooth-enabled. I lost count of iPhones and iTouches. Flat screen TVs are everywhere. Helpful students my daughter met along the way quickly proffered e-mail addresses and invited her to "friend" them on Facebook.

        Yesterday afternoon, we visited Brandeis University in suburban Boston, where both Anne and I graduated. The Brandeis campus was as modernized as the others we'd toured, but for me it was an entirely different experience, a backward-looking one, but in a good way.

        At the other campuses, I was the interested father, and the digital executive doing field research. At Brandeis, I transformed into the student that I once was.

        The campus has certainly grown since my days there, but the footprint remains the same, with the same majestic views of Boston in the distance. I looked past new buildings and saw the hill where we employed cafeteria trays as sleds in winter.  As the tour guide approached the student activity center near my freshman dorm, I left my wife and daughter and drifted down the stairs to the quad where I had first said good-bye to my parents and kid brother before they'd driven away, leaving me to face what I was sure was adulthood. Nearby, I saw the pond surrounded by the low stone wall where I would often sit when I needed time to think about the life before me, sometimes by myself when I needed solitude, sometime with friends, sometimes with  the woman who later became my wife and who right now was probably wondering where I'd gone. The scene was pristine: because the campus was on spring break, there was nary a student--no OAR or Third Eye Blind to interrupt the Beatles song ("Get Back") playing in my head. I was alone in my pre-digital world, back to a time when Vietnam was still raging, and I was reporting and writing for the campus radio station, WBRS, and imagining a career in broadcast journalism.

        That's the thing about college: if you're lucky--and I was--the four years you are there are yours and yours alone; a fully-formed, distinct period with certain songs, movies, friends and experiences--never to be replicated or duplicated by any other group.

        I stared at the pond and thought some private thoughts about where I had gone in life, and still hope to go, about my daughter and how lucky any college will be to get such a talented and shining star, and about how we leave certain places behind, seemingly forever, until they come rushing back, walloping you with intensity and feeling.

        I took one long, last look at the pond, and took the stairs upwards to rejoin my family, the tour and the 21st century.

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Connections

        Spend any time walking around the cavernous floors of the Las Vegas Convention Center during the National Association of Broadcasters confab, and you'll come smack up against someone talking about connections: whether it's moving your video playlist from your iPhone to your car, or making the newest generation of mobile devices connect you to the restaurant you're looking for or the movie you want to watch, giving you menus for the former, and the ability to instantly buy tickets for the latter.

        For me, this past week has also been about connections, but of the more human variety.

        I reconnected with a former news director who worked for me at Post-Newsweek. I always admired her keen intelligence and journalistic take, but we had lost touch over the years. Spending time with her at the Radio and TV News Directors convention (held simultaneously with the NAB) reconnected me with a woman I had watched grow from a neophyte newsie into an intuitive and wise broadcast journalist.

        A different reconnection happened by chance in a hotel lobby.  It was with someone whom I'd considered a friend--but then we had a professional relationship in the crazy TV business that damaged that friendship. Upon seeing each other, he got off his cell phone, and we hugged in that manly embrace that's peculiar to the tribe of show business. Life is too short to let an unsuccessful business relationship screw up what had been a pretty good friendship.

        I also reconnected with my love of journalism, and why and how I got into first radio, then television (then cable, now digital). I was on an RTNDA panel moderated by ABC News' John Cochran on "What Would Murrow Do?"--in honor of the 50th anniversary (at an earlier RTNDA) of Edward R. Murrow's famous "wires and lights in a box" speech, in which he challenged the then-three networks to do more serious journalism in prime time. With that great man's image on a screen in front of me, and his shadow all over the ballroom, I felt anew the sense of trembling excitement and responsibility I first experienced as a radio journalist in Washington. I connected those first feelings to how I feel now, experimenting with new forms of content at TitanTV.

        There were times during the past few kaleidoscopic days, amidst the tumult of crowds and appointments, when the people from my past whom I brushed up against--colleagues and acquaintances, rivals and competitors, friends with whom I savored triumphs and shared doubts--made me momentarily forget the present. Once or twice, I grew dizzy from the rush of the decades and the experiences that all these people evoked. But then I'd attend a dinner with my colleagues from TitanTV, and we'd discuss the affiliates we were meeting with, the feedback we were receiving and the positive press we were receiving and I would instantly rejoin the here-and-now, to this exciting and somewhat perilous digital threshold we're all crossing together.

        But I sometimes wonder: How did I get from there-and-then to here-and-now?

        A friend of mine supplied as good an answer as any:
        "We sometimes think life is linear--one experience connects to the next. But the path is not that straight, and the meandering is often the point."

        In other words, the connections are always there; you sometimes have to work, though, at seeing them, and sustaining them.

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“I’d like to thank the Academy…”

        Throughout the vast ballroom, collective breaths are being held. People sit on the edge of their plush velvet chairs. Among the assembled, one pushes a stray hair back into place, another adjusts the bow tie that came with the rented tux, a third mentally rehearses one last time her acceptance speech: from the mother who made it all possible, to "the little people" who really made it all possible. Okay, I've watched one too many glitzy award show on television.

        Welcome to the The Webby Awards otherwise known as "the Oscars of the Internet," according to The New York Times.

        Yesterday TitanGreens.com was nominated for two Webby Awards for the block of funny and funky web video series produced by TitanTV's original content team out of New York. If you need proof that environmentalists can have a sense of humor, the evidence is in our slate of shows anchored by "Daily Greens," a lightning-fast look at the latest eco-news, served with a healthy dash of sass; "Planet Police," a narrative mockumentary series about a not-so-dynamic duo who'll stop at (almost) nothing to take down eco-criminals; "Media Mulch," a down and dirty roundup of the coolest and greenest videos, blogs and gizmos you can find online; and "Versus," which busts the myths in a funny fashion on which products and services are the greenest choices for consumers.

        Funny as it is, TitanGreens is nominated in the Public Service and Activism category, one of five nominees. Last year the Webby Awards attracted over 8,000 entries from all fifty states and over sixty countries, generating over 750 million media impressions worldwide

        While an illustrious panel of judges from the world of multimedia will determine whether we merit The Webby Award, the Webby People's Voice Award is based upon--you guessed it--the voice of the people. To vote for TitanGreens, go to the Webby Awards site and register.

        1. Once you confirm your registration via email, click on the Webby icon that says "Online Film & Video."

        2. Go to the "Public Service and Activism" category and place your vote for TitanGreens.com.

        If you haven't checked out TitanGreens, click the image below:

 

        I am so proud of host Liza de Guia and Senior Producer Morgan Jones and TitanTV's VP and General Manager Laura van Straaten, who oversees the entire content team, and worked closely with them to develop and create the funny and informative web series that led to our nomination. TitanGreens is the only environmentally minded content among its competition.

        In a world awash in environmental one-up-manship and self-righteousness, I believe TitanGreens stands out. Here's how Laura described TitanGreens in submitting TitanGreens to the Webby judges:

        "...Our video content provides much needed proof that environmentalists do have a sense of humor. We don't pretend to be impartial. Our underlying premise is that global warming is happening and that we all should do something about it. We also don't pretend that people and institutions that deny the threat of global warming deserve to be treated with credence out of ‘fairness.'

        "But mainstream media and eco-specialty outlets often treat environmentalism too reverently, with almost no skepticism...or willingness to point out hypocrisies. With so much information and hype, it can get confusing. And, let's face it, most of us are bad at science. Even people who mean well need help knowing which choices, policies, products and services are truly best for the environment. "

        All of us here at TitanTV thank you for taking the time to vote. And maybe, just maybe, we'll include you in our acceptance speech.

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The TitanCast--A Progress Report

        We launched  the TitanCast Network at NATPE a couple of months ago; NAB is on the horizon. Our premise is simple: To help stations maximize their online efforts by creating a fuller video experience that can be better monetized. We believe that if you give people interesting reasons to stay on your web site--even if they come only to check on the weather--they will stay, and you'll benefit because local advertisers will value your viewers and their attention. The TitanCast is a turnkey operation: we can get stations up and running in under a day, and once they're up and running, they can unlock the potential of their online presence.

        So how are we doing?  Broadcasting and Cable, the bible of the TV industry, took a detailed look at TitanTV in the latest issue: Click on the screen grab below to take you to a more readable page. I don't want anyone to get a headache reading this blog!

 

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The Verge, Not the Precipice, Part Two

        At the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) annual conference at the Javits Center along New York's Hudson River, some of the best thinkers and doers in the television business attempted to make sense out of all of the media currents coursing through our industry and debated how not to get swamped in the process. Being in the local television station business has never felt more perilous--there are threats from every direction--and it was left to my friend Chris Rohrs, the President of TVB, to frame the challenges in an optimistic fashion, focusing on the opportunity inherent in any crisis.

        While there was much to take in (check out tvnewsday.com for complete coverage), I was most interested in those presentations that were relevant to where TitanTV sits, at the whirling vortex where television and the internet meet.  Renowned media consultant and researcher, Gordon Borrell, said that television has become just one of the appliances for receiving video content: "We've discovered that people now talk about watching the web, not using the web, or being on the web." In just a couple of short years, then, the internet has gone from being  a text-driven environment to one in which viewers are comfortable watching programs and other content. Boy, what a wake-up call that should be to everyone who still thinks they work for a television station!

        That's one of the reasons that NBC recently changed the name of its TV stations division to its "Local Media Division"--the new appellation more accurately reflects a suite of strong local brands