Well, it looks like someone at the Globe thought the Herald was right yesterday to blow out page one on the cutbacks at WBZ-TV (Channels 4 and 38). Because today the Globe comes back with its own front-page story on What It All Means. For what it’s worth, I think it’s less interesting than the Herald’s three story package yesterday.
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Anonymous
I know the media love covering themselevs — but the WBZ layoffs/retirements are not a Page 1 story.They just aren’t.Steve Bailey leaving? That leaves a bigger gap in Boston than Lobel et al, but even that wasn’t a story worthy of “Germany Surrenders” size headlines, as in yesterday’s HERALD.I dunno; maybe I’m just old. To me, it’s been all downhill since Don Gillis retired….
jvwalt
The Globe’s What It All Means story is also about ten years too late. Local TV stations have been trending away from the expensive, superstar anchors for quite some time. They’d rather have interchangeable parts. (So would NPR, for that matter; witness the exile of Bob Edwards.) It’s nothing new, and Bob Lobel may be the least-good exemplar of the trend; he could have gotten the gate simply for being past his prime.
Anonymous
The Globe also has a real problem with statistics: “According to TNS Media Intelligence, online advertising soared 60 percent to nearly $10 billion between 2003 and 2006, while TV ads increased only 20 percent to $68 billion during the same period.” So let’s do the math:online ads were up by $4 billion from a $6 billion base over this period; TV ads were up by $11 billion from a $57 billion base. Hardly a compelling argument for the demise of tv advertising as it relates to why WBZ doesn’t want to pay big bucks for celebrities when paying 22-year-olds 10% of what Bob Lobel makes will get them the same ratings.
Anonymous
The “Big Name” aspect of this story has unfortunately buried the real big media news of the week… that being the wholesale layoffs of 30 hard-working off-air staffers at WBZ-TV. Let’s not overlook them by spending too much time lamenting the passing of an era that really passed many years ago.
Anonymous
Getting rid of the big bucks talent is little more than a mirror image of the way the NFL runs its player personnel side of the business. When you get up in years, you make too much money for their system, and become expendable. OTOH, it is too bad about the ‘nameless’ little guys that are losing their jobs in this story.As an aside, related to online advertising and growth of the online side off the news business. Is it just me, or has the local TV news (I watch more Ch 5, but also Ch 4) broadcasts become little more than a commercial for their online sites? With ‘CVB, every other thing out of their mouths is a plea to go to ‘the BostonChannel.Com’. I understand the desire on their part, but the frequency and insistence drives me mad.