Old Media's Worst Nightmare: Stars Emerging On The Internet Platform

Filed in archive IPTV on February 7, 2006

recap from Business Week:

Ronald Grover, who has covered media for Business Week for a couple of decades, sees the emergence of a "worst nightmare" scenario for traditional media: Somewhere, probably in the not-too-distant future, an internet radio or video program is going to leap from a small, zealous audience to a huge audience, unencumbered by all the restraints of commercial radio and TV.

He focuses his piece on The Young Turks, a trio of ultra-liberal commentators who produce and host their own TV-like Webcast, which is heard by perhaps 100,000 listeners a week. But that has gotten them some advertisers, plus a deal with Sirius Satellite Radio and three local radio stations. Podcasts will soon be available for purchase for a buck per show. In sum, The Young Turks are on a roll.

"If Big Media isn't paying attention, it ought to," writes Grover. "The Internet has a way of producing overnight sensations." Incidentally, one of the three Angelenos who constitute The Young Turks is 38-year-old Ben Mankiewicz, the son of Robert Kennedy's onetime press secretary.