Ep 11 Meredith Viera Show Canceled, Yahoo Screen Shut Down

Meredith Vieira's syndicated TV show canceled. Yahoo. Screen Shut down what does this mean for traditional media companies and corporate Internet media companies?

Speaking the show about effective speaking in public to the media at work and in life. Speaking with TJ Walker.

Folks, these are exciting media times we're living in now. It's not exactly surprising to that many people that a big syndicated broadcast TV show for traditional TV network affiliates all over the country is cancelled. MEREDITH VIEIRA SHOW Now, Meredith Vieira is a respected broadcast professional. She's done excellent work at 60 Minutes. She's been on the View, she's been on the Today show. She's been all over the place and is by all accounts, and I don't know her personally, but by all accounts well liked, well respected in the media world. Many had high hopes for her syndicated TV show, kind of like a Katie Couric show, and was cancelled after two years. The ratings were frankly anemic. Now, I don't know that there's anything Meredith Vieira could have done better. The problem is just the fragmentation of the media world. When Phil Donahue and Oprah were getting started, you basically had three things you could possibly look at on tv. Well, that plus pbs, that was it, and a newspaper from news from yesterday. So it was relatively easy to get millions and millions and millions of people watching. And then it's easy to get advertisers. These days, everybody has millions of things they can look at right on their cell phone. Why is this important for communicators? Well, because the traditional way of going on a network TV newscast, whether it's NBC News, cnn, it's changing. It's changing every day. Now that's not the surprising thing. The surprising thing to many people is that a new media company, a relatively new media company, a 20 year old company like Yahoo, is showing that they can't seem to make it work either when it comes to media and video. They specifically have a project known as Yahoo. Screen. They're shutting it down, all sorts of original video programming. They're writing off $42 million in losses from this program. So if the Meredith Vieira traditional shows aren't working, doesn't that mean the Yahoo shows are supposed to work? Well, no, not if they just bring in the same old people who need the same kind of infrastructure, hand holding. Katie Couric is one of the stars. She's the world anchor for Yahoo News. Now I don't have anything against Katie Couric, but the idea that they could have her produce little video segments on Yahoo and presumably still pay her seven figure salaries. How they could ever monetize that and not lose money, I have no idea. Now, her show has not been officially cancelled, but the writing is on the wall. Here are the big lessons that I see from this. The Internet is constantly trying to get rid of the mediaries. The Internet is constantly trying to get rid of middlemen. Now the big TV networks and syndication dealers in New York who put out Meredith Vieira's show, they are middlemen and middle women. They're just putting too much expense into the equation. There's no way they were going to make that work. But what is Yahoo? Yahoo is really a middleman between content creators and the audience. Yahoo is not paying me a big fancy salary. Don't feel sorry for me. I have other revenue streams, but I'm able to reach you directly without a big TV network, without a big media company like Yahoo. And fortunately or unfortunately, that is the future. Because when you don't have all these middlemen, it allows you to be leaner, more efficient. And the economics change completely. When you hire so many traditional TV broadcasters to do Internet ventures as Yahoo did, they come in with really high salaries, the need for limos. If you've ever been involved with a traditional TV show, even a cable network, the way they spend money is in some ways crazy. I'll never forget, I had just moved to New York City. It was early 1996. I got booked to be on the old Montel Williams show. They sent a stretch limousine that was half a block long to pick me up. And I was one of seemingly a dozen guests. Huge audience and it was nice, it was fun. And back then Montel was generating 10 million viewers a day. So you could make a lot from advertising. Meredith Vieira is not generating 10 million viewers a day. Katie Couric on a little screen for Yahoo is not generating 10 million viewers a day. Nobody is. And that's why the economics are so different. I want to talk just a moment about some of the specifics of how these shows are produced, the body language issues and why they frankly aren't going to be relevant in the future.

Body language.

So a lot of what these big budget shows do is they have big studio audiences. And in fact, research has shown that if you have a big audience, and certainly Oprah always did, it just makes the whole show feel bigger. People watching at home alone feel like they are a part of a community. So I don't knock the value of having studio audiences. Plus you have some residual PR benefit in that when someone comes To New York or Chicago or la, wherever a show is produced. If they go to a show, meet the host, shake a hand, they feel a personal connection they're talking about, it generates buzz. Jay Leno was known for years with having a tremendous work ethic of shaking the hands of every single person who came to the Tonight Show. So there's some value to that, but there's a huge expense. And the expense is you need to have a lot of full time people who do nothing but try to corral an audience. They don't make money from it. They don't charge money to sit in the audience. It actually costs money to go out and recruit and vet and organize and house and feed all of these people. So it's a tremendous expense. Again, when you have 10, 15 million people in the audience, you can charge a lot of money for advertising. But in the new atomized world where there's just a gazillion shows and podcasts and some of you are listening to this on itunes now, some of you are watching on Facebook, video or YouTube, there's so many ways of reaching out to people. But even if you're reaching out in every possible way, no one's getting 10 million views a day. They just aren't. That's what changes everything. So the reason I bring this up and why it's, I think, so important for communicators, whether you are a director of communications for a big company, a small company, whether you are the CEO of a big company or just a one person consultant who's out promoting yourself. The reason I think this is so important is I see all of the trends going further and further niched as far as every individual company, and for that matter, every individual needs to have their own show. If you want to communicate with people, you need to get rid of the middleman and the middle woman. That means you've got to communicate directly with your customers, your clients, your prospects. Now that's essentially what the thesis is of this show. No one is standing between you and me. If you want expertise on media training and public speaking training, you don't have to wait until once every three months when I get asked to appear on CNN or MSNBC or Fox or something like that. I don't have to wait for a guest column to appear in the Bulldog Report or trade publication that used to exist. I don't have to wait for all those trade or all those traditional media outlets to contact me. You don't have to wait. If you want my stuff, you can just find me directly I think that is the trend we're going to see more and more and more in every single single industry. Now, there are some exceptions as far as people who are doing things inherently interesting to vast, vast swaths of society. I do think there's still going to be celebrity news about what's going on in Hollywood. I think there's going to be hardcore news as far as what politicians in Washington, the president, presidential candidates are doing. But even there, we have seen this past year the new relationship between new media, Donald Trump on Twitter, essentially driving all of the traditional media's coverage. So what is happening, as I see it, is there is now a premium placed on communication skills that we've never seen before. Folks, it's always been important to communicate, but there was a time if you were pretty good, had a message, had a PR team, had someone pitching you, had some discipline, you could kind of be everywhere and do pretty well. Those days, I think, are just not going to work anymore for most people. There's going to be a premium on the skill of CEOs, of leading politicians, of consultants, authors and experts who can capture messages and package them in a more interesting way, but then have the discipline or the organizational wherewithal to put it all together and put it out. That could just mean an extraordinarily active Twitter feed. It could mean more active Facebook posts. Although I think by far the biggest option is going to be for those who are actively creating audio and video content. Whether you call it a YouTube video, an iTunes podcast, streaming media for Netflix. We are simply going to see more and more and more experts, executives, political leaders, anyone who's trying to get something done in the modern world and wants customers, clients, followers, fans, voters, contributors. Anyone who wants that is going to have to play a new game, in my view. They are going to have to become their own media companies. Now, this is not an original insight, folks. People like Gary Vaynerchuk, the new media guru, is very fond of saying that in this day and age, every company has to be a media company. So I have to echo what he's saying, but I want to put a particular focus on people who don't see themselves as media personalities. And for many people, there's a huge difference between being asked for an interview and someone respectfully requests a few minutes of your time, and you grant them time to answer their questions because you're an expert. A lot of people are relatively comfortable with that. But the idea of just not waiting for a reporter, just creating your own content, just saying, here are my great ideas. Take it. Here's what you need to do. A far higher percentage of people are extremely uncomfortable with that. It comes across as unseemly, too self promotional, almost bombastic. It almost makes people feel like they're mini Donald Trumps. And by the way, Donald Trump, he doesn't do it as much now, but he used to do a lot of simple talking head video that he would post on YouTube or he's just sitting at his desk in his office. Even when he had his big primetime show, the Apprentice, he would still use all the cheap, inexpensive, simple ways of putting messages out there and using video. So I need you to start giving this some specific thought as to what are you going to do if the traditional media outlets you use to communicate with your customers aren't there? Because advertising, we're already seeing, it is not having much impact. It's with ad blockers. With so many content options, our customers, our prospects can go their whole day without having to subject themselves to ads because they can go right to content that interests them. Whether it's on Snapchat, whether it's on Facebook, Pinterest, they can just go right to content. So the old methods of interruption marketing, sticking that 30 second ad, it's not working, folks. And the whole idea, well, I'll just go on CNBC once a quarter to talk about my quarterly earnings. That's not really working because the audience there isn't that substantial. And who knows how long a traditional network like CNBC will even be around with its bloated structure and cost structure. So these are things I want you to think about. I want you to start thinking about your questions as it relates to this new media world. Because a part of it is the technology. And the technology is getting better and easier and faster. But part of it is the human element actually having to speak, think, talk, appear, move in front of a camera. And for many people, that is far and away the harder part of this whole process.

Do you have a speaking related question for number one USA Today best selling author TJ Walker? For more than 30 years, Walker has been a public speaking coach and media trainer to presidents of Countries, Prime Ministers, CEOs, Nobel Peace Prize winners, professional athletes and Ms. Universes. Send your questions to infoediatrainingworldwide.com or on Twitter J. Walker.

So folks, I certainly don't appear or don't want to appear to be someone who is celebrating someone else's downfall. I mentioned at the top of the program Meredith Vieira. Her program has been canceled, folks. She's really really rich. She's made tens of millions of dollars over her career. Certainly she has some staffers who are young and probably certainly not wealthy yet. I feel sorry for them, but I don't want to seem like I'm dancing on someone's grave. But I do think it's important to recognize reality as it's happening and to react and plan accordingly for the future. Same with Yahoo. I mean, Yahoo got into trouble, I think by trying to take what worked in the old media world of three TV networks and maybe a few cable channels and thinking you could hire the same high priced talent and transport it over to the little screen and somehow digitize it and make it as much money. Now, Katie Couric, as of this broadcast today, has not been let go from Yahoo. I don't dislike Katie Hurrick. I don't wish her ill. But if she's fired tomorrow and never works a day in her life, she'll be a lot richer than me or you or probably the top 500 people combined watching this program. She has made tens, if not north of $100 million in her career. So we don't need to feel sorry for her. If in fact her Yahoo days as global anchor, whatever that is, is so where do we really stand? The future is in simple media. TV and radio, audio and video produced where the economics are viable. A show like Emeritus Vieira, where you have to pay the talent millions of dollars, everyone has to have limos, big TV studios, union. And I'm not anti union, folks. I've been in a union before. But you're paying unionized TV camera operators and editors. You can't start a show like that without investing millions and millions of dollars. The economics don't work now. People are doing smaller shows all the time. Gary Vaynerchuk, you've heard me mention him from time to time. He does a Great show, the AskGaryVee program. And he certainly doesn't have the big bloated bureaucracy of a network TV show. But he has a much fancier show than I do in that he has editors, he has a camera person, he has a producer there, a sidekick. By my count, he has half a dozen people working on the program. So you have to figure when he's really adding up all the cost for his program. It's got to be north of a quarter million dollars a year in terms of salary, time, staff time. It might not be separate checks, but if he didn't do that show, he would have the time of those people to do other billable hours. Presumably so he's investing a quarter million dollars in that show based on new clients he can get. If he gets one new client, another NFL team that can pay millions and the whole show's worth it. That, I think, is the real model of the future, where you're doing a show and your expenses are relatively low. You get one new client, pays for itself in some ways. I'll be totally transparent with you. That's the revenue model of this show. If I get one new client and it generates a six figure fee, I can consider this show a success. Because other than initial upfront cost, and I already had a TV studio and a camera and a thousand bucks or so for some of the graphics in it, which I understand not everyone loves the graphics and the sound effects. But other than investing really less than $1,500, I can produce this show or zero. So if I sell an extra training a month, if I generate a few more thousand dollars in online course sales, some book sales, another speaking gig every so often comes in, let's say, and I'm hoping this is sort of a pessimistic view, that this show, audio and video versions, brings in another 90,000 for me. Well, in any other media universe, at NBC, at the syndication company that deals with the Meredith of the Vieras of The World, a TV program, a radio program that generates $90,000, is an unmitigated failure. It is something that destroys the company. Everyone involved would have a black mark on their record. It would be considered an unmitigated disaster of epic proportion. And yet, for me, I'm going to consider that not a home run, but a single and a success, because I don't have to spend that much time on it and I spend essentially $0 in extra production and distribution. I mean, there are a couple little expenses, but it's pretty minimal for folks. That I think, is the new model, because that means every author can do it. Every expert, every consultant, every small company, every large company can do this. Now, is everyone going to have a huge audience? No, I may never have a huge audience, but I just need the right audience. I would much rather have the right hundred people who really care passionately about public speaking, media training, presentation skills, being a better communicator. I'd much rather have 100 people who really care about that and also hire me and buy my courses and services for other things. I'd much rather have 100 people in my audience than to have a million. Now, if you said I could have 10 million, okay, I'd go for the 10 million. There's plenty of ways you can monetize that. But these are some of the things I need you to think about because the future is coming. The old media world and even the relatively new media world of Yahoo of 20 years ago and currently it's crumbling. And I think the winners, the survivors in the future will be those who get their cost structure down to almost nothing or something that seems almost nothing to them. To me, as a one person business, spending $50 a month is essentially zero. If you're Gary Vaynerchuk and you have a 600 plus person agency spending a couple hundred thousand for a TV show that really expands your reach, that's almost zero. If you are Citibank and you can get your top executives and and fund managers and others communicating to the whole world you care about, maybe doing it for $3 million is essentially zero in your view, especially considering what you spend on communication PR now. So that's a glimpse into the future as I see it. I want to know, what do you think I want to hear from you. Five years from now, will you be producing, if not your own daily show, at least your own weekly show, or will your company be doing that? That's what I want to hear from you. Please post your comments in the discussion section right here. Wherever you're watching this, whether it's on Facebook, YouTube, or whether you're listening to the podcast on itunes, go to my website@mediatrainingworldwide.com and post your comments. I would love to hear from you. Thanks so much for joining me today. Thank you. As always. May all of your speaking opportunities in life be a huge success.

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