I was on a panel at the public radio program directors confab with David Weinberger, KCRW’s Jennifer Ferro with On the Media’s Brooke Gladstone moderating (she sounds just like she sounds on the radio and I’m silly enough to find that amazing). Most of the folks I could see were nodding at the right moments (that is, they were agreeing with us, of course). But at the end, there was one guy who sounded just like a big, old, for-profit media mogul, complaining that they’ll lose money giving away programming for free. Ferro dealt with him handily, saying that they all need to use online to reach a wider audience, freed from the schedule. She also said that online is a great means of developing talent, that in the old days you’d have to put someone untried on at midnight on Sundays but now you can give them a show online and watch them grow. Brooke said that OTM is now getting 270,000 podcast downloads each week; that’s impressive new audience growth. David and I merely solved the world’s problems, save one.
I, too, couldn’t believe my ears when I heard such old-media type concern over lack of control from that one questioner of the panel. I was happy to hear you tell him (not suggest or propose, but tell him) that it is precisely because the RIAA has tried so desperately to restrict content that the music industry has suffered (or was he talking about movies? I forget, but the point remains).
Why is it so hard for people to see that “giving away content for free” and thereby “leaving money on the table” is the paradigm in which public radio already operates? Isn’t that the “public” part? If people value what you provide them with, if you provide a service for which there is no alternative of equal or better quality, then they will reward you for it. And you’ll never find those people by expecting them to put up some money up front without knowing what they’re going to get and without allowing them to develop a realtionship to and connection with the content.
It seems to me that the thought of pervasive online media is still so new to a lot of people that they can’t help but feel threatened by it.
I enjoyed the panel, Jeff!