Intelligence Briefs

Five years ago I attended a media think tank hosted by the management of the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. The guest speaker was Bill Keller who was then the executive editor of the New York Times, a position from which he stepped down in 2011 to return to becoming a full time writer for the Times. The eruption of the financial crisis facing many papers across the nation was gaining full force at the time of Keller’s talk. The Boston Globe, which was then owned by the Times (Now owned by a group of Red Sox principals) was in particular financial stress as was the case at the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times and many smaller newspapers throughout the country. Draconian cutbacks were taking place in newspaper newsrooms, and those cutbacks and closings continue today. During the Q&A following Keller’s talk I asked if he felt a possible solution to maintaining strong print editorial departments was collaboration with television stations and local cable news channels in the local marketplace. Would the sharing of personnel allow for a bolstering of local news coverage and investigative reporting in both mediums?

As we approach the one-year anniversary of the Newtown tragedy, and nearly eleven months have passed since Joe Biden’s much-touted

Recently, I attended my first Techonomy Conference. Beyond the awesome venue, Dove Mountain outside of Tucson, Arizona

Two things are clear when looking at the 2014 US Senate election map: Democrats have their work cut out for them; but at the same time, there aren’t all that many hot contests a year out from Election Day.

Triggering an industry paradigm shift is not a task for the faint of heart, at least, that's been my experience. Over the last decade, I have engineered an infrastructure for the brave new world of voice procurement online, with all roads and search queries leading to Voices.com. From my vantage point, I see infinite possibilities on the horizon to serve using spoken word recordings to share important messages via radio and television and to communicate stories that change lives.

The sale of a normal business, say a convenience store, is straight-forward. The buyer pays up, signs all the necessary documents and moves in. But a broadcast transaction must await FCC approval, which usually takes about 90 days or more during which the station must be kept in good operating order. Communications contract expert John Pelkey explains the four key considerations for the seller during this time of limbo.

It’s can be great when a broadcast group is “all in the family,” but it can be devastating in surprising ways when the group is sold out of the family. Edward J. Kopf and Erwin Krasnow combine their expertise to dissect this seldom-considered but very important topic.

The Federal Communications Commission—whose transactions and meetings are covered regularly by Radio and Television Business Report and other industry publications

Revolt TV’s entré into music television made a big splash, but P. Diddy – a cultural curator of our generation – must understand how to attract Millennials and keep their attention or risk becoming inconsequential with the likes of Fuse TV and MTV2. Revolt TV’s timing couldn’t be better. We are at the pinnacle of where social media, technology and music intersect. Millennials are excited about “emerging artists” and getting the latest news on their favorite artist or band. They are listening and watching on a range of digital devices. They love to let other people know who they are listening to and have dozens of channels to disseminate that information. This trifecta of activation gives Diddy an amazing starting-point for his channel. But just throwing a channel up on the dial and putting Diddy’s name behind it isn’t enough.

Multiples are a favorite station-trading statistic, but according to veteran broker/broadcaster George Reed, they are often an eye-of-the-beholder stat where different results can be cited for the same exact transaction. In fact, Reed says it is best to have the salt shaker handy before embarking on a discussion of multiples. Here’s his handy guide to sorting everything out:

Broadcast transactions can in some ways conform to the tried-and-true good news, bad news joke format, and then some. For example, the bad news is that time expires between signing an agreement and getting approval for it. The good news is that it allows for the resolution of certain problems. But the bad news is on many occasions, the extra time is needed. Communications transaction expert John Pelkey explains, with a focus on the often slippery aspects of the real estate portion of a deal.

It comes as no surprise to those of us who transact business in the spot television arena that local audience