Media Business Matters Podcast - Amanda D. Lotz

The self-isolation of early 2020 inspired Alex and me to sort out the time zones and revisit what had happened since our last edition. Recorded in mid April 2020, here’s some thoughts on what happened in media industries in 2019. 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 stories 300 stories about news outlets on six continents for Nieman Journalism Lab. Lichterman produces the Solution Set newsletter that 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.

Alex and Amanda talk with Evan Smith, CEO of The Texas Tribune, a digital-only, not-for-profit news organization that operates in Texas. Evan joins us to discuss what he's learned about the opportunities and challenges for digital journalism, and be sure to note his definition of journalism around the 16 minute mark.

In the second episode in our series on the Business of Local Media, we pose many of our questions about the challenges facing local media to expert Christopher Ali, author of Media Localism: The Policies of Place (University of Illinois Press, 2017).

Amanda and Alex launch a new series of episodes that focus on the business of local media. This episode discusses what local means in this context, what we hope to learn, and the particular challenges local media face.

In this episode, Alex goes to the Cinetopia Film Festival in Ann Arbor and Dearborn to learn more about the business of film festivals and the role they play in getting films distribution. First, Ariel Wan, Director of Marketing and Programming for the festival joins him in North Quad Studios to talk about the festival. Then, later in the episode, we hear from filmmakers whose films screened at the festival. The voices you'll hear in that segment: Bo Burnham (writer/director, "Eighth Grade"), Qasim Basir (co-writer/director, "A Boy. A Girl. A Dream."), Michael Curtis Johnson (writer/director, "Savage Youth") and Michael Dweck (director, "The Last Race"). You can also listen to this episode and subscribe for future episodes on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

Aymar Jean Christian joins Amanda in North Quad Studios to talk about his book Open TV: Innovation Beyond Hollywood and the Rise of Web Television which looks at the opportunities for web series in the early phase of internet-distributed video. We have a wide-ranging chat about the business behind these shows, the storytelling they made possible, how quickly the portal ecosystem changes, and our concerns about a post-net neutrality U.S.

We've been lucky to have some guests come through North Quad Studio in recent weeks. The first is David Craig from USC to talk about his ongoing collaborative research project on Social Media Entertainment. David drops a whole lot of knowledge in this podcast that spans discussion of many social media platforms and revenue models.

Alex takes the reigns and interviews Amanda about her new book, We Now Disrupt This Broadcast: How Cable Transformed Television and the Internet Revolutionized It All.

Amanda and Alex dig into some recent media headlines to discuss whether and how they matter. We work our way through a variety of Netflix stories including its purchase of distribution rights for The Cloverfield Paradox and Annihilation, its original movie strategy, and what all this means for theatrical distribution. We also talk about going to the theater and some new insights about Movie Pass, before finishing off with Netflix' big Ryan Murphy deal.

Amanda and Alex are joined by Amanda Cote to discuss the contemporary terrain of the video game industries.

Amanda and Alex talk about the what makes a media company a media company and why these classifications matter.

Amanda and Alex were delighted to host Alex Blumberg, CEO and co-founder of Gimlet Media, to talk about the business of podcasting. Alex explains how and why Gimlet came to be and offers his assessment of the current and future market for podcasts. Our thanks to Lynette Clemetson and the Knight-Wallace Fellows program for making Alex's visit possible.

It's that time again--when we look back at the last 12 months and try to make sense of the stories with lasting importance. 2017 gave us a ride up to the end, with so much to discuss we had to supersize the episode. Media news doesn't nicely bind itself to the calendar though, so a fair bit of looking ahead to 2018 here as well. Enjoy and thank you for sharing another year of Media Business Matters with us!

Amanda and Alex revisit the interviews that were part of the public media series to place all the insights into conversation and identify key takeaways.

Alex and Amanda talk with Laura Walker, President and CEO of New York Public Radio--the largest public radio station group in the nation and a major producer of audio content--about how digital distribution is affecting local public radio. We explore WNYC's podcasting and distribution strategies and the possibilities for local media.

Alex and Amanda host John Shields, a BBC Editor, visiting as a Knight Wallace Fellow here at the University of Michigan’s Wallace House. We talk about the challenges and opportunities digitization has brought a public media institution with scope and history of the BBC as well as his project exploring the loss of public trust in broadcast media. 

Tamar Charney, the Managing Editor of National Public Radio's NPR One App talks with us about the technological opportunities available to public media. We learn a lot about how the app is expanding NPR's listeners by making listening more convenient (it's like a DVR for NPR). And we get to hear what a real radio voice sounds like.

Lynette Clemetson starts off our look at U.S. public media in the digital age with a rich discussion of how NPR took advantage of journalists forced out of print, developed podcasts, and found new ways to serve audiences with digital technology. Not to get all meta but, some great insight on how podcasts differ from radio from a content as well as business perspective.

This episode launch a multi-episode consideration of public media--media that is not a media business, but a vital part of our media ecosystem nonetheless. In this opening episode, Amanda and Alex explore what counts as public media in the U.S., how it is funded and organized, and its different purpose and measures of success.

Amanda and Alex take on the annual rite of end of summer doom and gloom stories about the box office to explore whether the domestic box office is a meaningful measure of anything for different sectors of the film industry. We also talk MoviePass and what it might tell us about new strategies in exhibition.

Amanda and Alex explore some of the many ways digital distribution is leading media industries to adjust their global strategies. In particular, we discuss the emergence of services such as Netflix (of course) that are redefining the previously national boundaries of television distribution and discuss some of the complexities for film as well.

Amanda and Alex recap the bounty of portal news breaking in early August and the various strategies emerging. CBS All Access, Disney's announced portals (ESPN), Seeso shutting down, FX+, the future of Hulu...Amanda explains what is and isn't happening in these deals.

Amanda and Alex catch up and think big in this supersize podcast. We pull out key themes that emerged in the Future of Digital Media Businesses talks and Alex's interviews with theater executives. Amanda hints at some new preliminary thinking and uses Alex's insights from the theater industry  to reimagine a future for film. 

Alex talks with Barry Grove of the Manhattan Theatre Club to learn more about the business strategies useful to not-for-profit theaters competing alongside Broadway.

Alex talks with Mark Hoebee of the Paper Mill Playhouse to learn more about how the theater business continues to adapt to our changing media world.

Amanda and Alex return to form and catch up on shifts in revenue strategies in the television business. We talk about why "stacking rights" became part of series pick-up discussions and the consequences studios face if they make shows too easy to watch in the first window.

This is the last of four special episodes recorded at the Future of Digital Media Businesses Symposium hosted by the University of Michigan. In this episode, Dan Herbert, Associate Professor in the Department of Screen Arts and Cultures at the University of Michigan explores how digitization has affected the film industry.

This is the third of four special episodes recorded at the Future of Digital Media Businesses Symposium hosted by the University of Michigan. In this episode, Amanda Lotz, Professor of Media Studies at the University of Michigan and Fellow at the Peabody Media Center, explores how digitization has affected the television industry.

This is the second of four special episodes recorded at the Future of Digital Media Businesses Symposium hosted by the University of Michigan. In this episode, John B. Thompson, Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, explores how digitization has affected the book publishing industry.

This is the first of four special episodes recorded at the Future of Digital Media Businesses Symposium hosted by the University of Michigan. In this episode, Lee Marshall, a sociologist from the University of Bristol discusses how digitization has affected the recording industry.

After spending the last few months turning Media Business Matters into a series of interviews, Amanda and Alex take stock of what they learned about how the film businesses are changing and remaining the same.

Film and media scholar Dan Herbert joins Amanda and Alex to try to sort out the difference between television and film as these distinctions grow blurrier. 

Amanda and Alex host Ira Deutchman in the studio to talk about how the independent film business has changed, and remained the same, over his forty years in the business. Ira reveals what he thinks are the most important parts of training filmmakers, what irks him about discussions of the recent "golden age" of television, and misunderstandings of independent film.

Amanda and Alex take a field trip to the office of Russ Collins, Executive Director and CEO of the Michigan Theater and Creative Director of the Cinetopia Film Festival. Russ explains the particular dynamics of film exhibition outside the multiplex and a sector of filmgoing that remains alive and thriving. Our wide ranging conversation explores the challenges and opportunities of the art film sector, where that sector developed from, and the particularities of operating as a community-based, mission driven theater--all with our media business focus. 

Alex interviews Amanda about her new book that begins to make sense of questions such as "Is Netflix television?" Portals--a short book--explores how television distributed over the internet isn't a "new medium," but a new way to distribute television. The book considers how both the technological affordances of internet distribution and the predominant business model (subscriber funding) allow television to do new things, while in other ways it remains very similar to the business of television we've long known.

Amanda and Alex look back over the year to assess what we've learned and how the media businesses have changed and are changing and highlight a few stories to watch going into 2017. We close the show by looking back at our picks for the notable media produced by media businesses in 2016, and with a thank you listeners who've joined us as we complete our first year. Here's a takeaway "maybe we need to think less about old media versus new media because it is increasingly all just big media."

Amanda and Alex look back at the election as a media business story. Contested elections with colorful characters are good for business, though data about what some media covered this cycle suggests they may not be good for an informed democracy. We also look at all we don't know about the next four years and what a Trump administration might mean for media policy.

Amanda and Alex, provoked by an article by Matthew Ball, consider the changing use of distribution windows by media industries and why windows exist at all. Also, a few thoughts on the pending AT&T/Time Warner merger in closing.

Amanda and Alex dig into a series about the growing business of podcasts written by Ken Doctor in Nieman Reports. Are podcasts the next big thing, or just another part of the shifting digital media scene?

Amanda and Alex look back at the summer and discuss the biggest news from film, television, journalism, music, theater, and social media. Guess which one of us has a head cold.

Alex and Amanda turn again to the business of internet-distributed television to reflect on Amanda's refusal to say OTT, what moves by CBS with Star Trek: Discovery suggest about its strategy for CBS All-Access, ABC's launch of its own portal, Disney's big spend for a share of BAMTech, and a variety of Hulu news.

Amanda and Alex go for the gold in this look at the economics of sports on television. Whether media events such as the Olympics, March Madness, or the Super Bowl or regular league rights deals, the business of sports on television is being disrupted, and in ways different from the rest of television.

Amanda and Alex consider what the box office weakness of summer sequels means and considers changes in film distribution, film marketing, and uses big data.

Alex and Amanda dive into the Vulture article on the business of peak TV.