Inspired by self-isolation, Alex and Amanda revisit what happened in the media business (that matters) since our last podcast. Recorded in mid April 2020, we mostly set aside commentary on Covid implications as unknowable, so it holds up surprisingly well given its mid-year release. The conversation is a little looser than normal; my repeated laughter (painful to listen to) reveals just how welcome the conversation was amidst weeks of isolating.
Amanda and Alex finish the year in review wrap up with a look back at a few more industries and a look forward at the issues to watch in 2019. We close with our “favorites” of 2018 and a big announcement about the show.
2018 was full of news in media industries and we discuss some of the biggest stories in this two-part wrap up. From mergers, to #MeToo, to MoviePass (and some things that don't start with M) we address not just what happened, but why it matters in 2019 and going forward.
Megan Sapnar Ankerson joins Amanda and Alex to talk about her new book Dot-Com Design: The Rise of a Usable, Social, Commercial Web. Megan's book sets the stage for many of our conversations about internet and web-based businesses by reminding us of the forces that led it to take its contemporary form.
It's an "extra" episode in which we put the five local media interviews in conversation to see what we can take away on this complicated subject. (Sorry about the slow production of late)
In our final interview of the Local Media series, Amanda and Alex talk with Joseph Lichterman, a senior business associate at the Lenfest Institute for Journalism. We talk about the insight he gained researching and writing 300 stories about news outlets on six continents for Nieman Journalism Lab and through producing the Solution Set newsletter, which examines experimentation in local news.
Amanda and Alex talk with Zoe Clark to learn about the challenges of managing a “local” mission of state-wide service and how NPR stations are filling the gaps in communities that have lost local newspapers.
Zoe Clark is Michigan Radio's Program Director. Clark oversees all programming on the state's largest public radio station - including the station's award-winning newsroom, and co-hosts It's Just Politics, a weekly look at Michigan politics airing Monday mornings on Morning Edition.
Alex and Amanda talk with Neil Chase, Executive Editor of the Bay Area News Group. He is a veteran journalist and marketer with deep experience in print and digital news, who got his start at the San Francisco Examiner, and has been as a professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and held top spots at the business news site MarketWatch.com, The New York Times and Federated Media Publishing.
Neil gives us a nuanced look at the role of ownership and types of local--it might not be about who owns you, but their approach to the business.
Logo by Zack Wall
You’ve already heard what happened this week, but we take the next steps of explaining why it matters and why you should care. This isn’t a place of pontificating and empty predictions, but of getting to the meat of what is going on in media today and the implications for media businesses and media consumers. Knowledgeable outsiders, Alex, a journalist, and Amanda, a professor, consider emerging changes without a stake in the disruptions to explore why the transformative shifts experienced by media today matter to you.
You can subscribe to our podcast in iTunes and can subscribe directly to our RSS feed by copying that link. Send us your questions or suggested topics at DrTVLotz@gmail.com
Amanda Lotz is a professor of media studies at the University of Michigan and author of several books about media and media industries including The Television Will Be Revolutionized and Portals: A Treatise on Internet-Distributed Television.
Alex Intner is a journalist who specializes in reporting on the arts and media industries. You can find his writing in The Michigan Daily, where he was an arts writer and web developer.
