What if Paris Hilton did something and the traditional media didn't cover it? Would anyone miss it? Would anyone care?
As it turns out, no. I know what you're thinking: well, duh, Nicole. But in all seriousness, AP newswire decided to experiment with a "No Paris Hilton stories" policy for a week. They were braced for questions and complaints ... instead they got thanks, from media and consumers alike.
Now contrast that to this quote David Sirota found from an LA Times owner in the Frontline series on today's media:
"[The LA Times] has got these 22 foreign bureaus...That's not what readers want. Readers care about the local entertainment industry...They care about things like fashion...Where the problem is, is that the people who are writing the L.A. Times, they want to be writing about international events. They want to be writing long-term pieces about why Bush went to war in Iraq. And we're saying, and the people at Tribune are saying, there are other people writing those stories...Do we really need the L.A. Times devoting the resources it has to that story?"
Actually, yes, we DO need the LA Times (and other media) devoting resources to that. And as the AP example show, your consumers will thank you for it. Duh.
