Last night Catherine, Bernita and I attended a "Blogger Summit" hosted by CBS Atlanta (or Eye Atlanta, WGCL-TV, WGNX, Channel 46, CBS 46 or whatever they're calling themselves this week). Together with about 25 other "bloggers" from the Metro Area, we were treated to PowerPoint, pizza and a pedestrian pitch.
But before I launch into what will certainly come across as a rant, I should report that Catherine and Nita had a much more positive reaction than I did, and even seemed flattered by the attention, or at least by the effort, put forth by Steve Schwaid, Director of News and Digital Content for the station.
In addition to receiving a goody bag of station SWAG, Nita took home one of the Flip cameras, even though she already had at least one in her purse. Note to self: Nita can be bribed with small electronic gadgetry.
For my part, I just expected more. As someone who cares about the future of broadcast news, I've been waiting, watching and hoping for an idea that could pull this venerable profession back from the brink and into the 21st century. It doesn't have to be a big idea. A small one will do as long as it's in the right direction. Alas, a new idea couldn't be found within 50 miles of Studio B last night, unless something was brewing on the Georgia Tech campus three blocks South.
It was difficult to decipher the exact goal of the meeting, but it seems to have been a solicitation to provide free content to the station's website -- either passively or aggressively. It was announced that cbsatlanta.com would aggregate our feeds and repackage them under a "blog stew" brand umbrella. Since most blogs are aggregated by multiple services these days (this blog has a ping feature to notify aggregators), that's all good. Even Rusty Tanton, veteran of the infamous feed war of 2008 was unperturbed. Tessa asked for assurance that they wouldn't engage in splogging, but the question was either poorly worded or flew over their heads. Either way, there's no reason to suspect they will at this point.
For those willing to play the home version of Who Wants to be a Journalist?, Flip cameras were offered on loan to anyone agreeing to shoot video to share with the station. It's a far cry from the tricked out kit Shelby got when he signed up to provide free content for MTV, but it was a very nice gesture. Grayson's first shoot was video of her dog eating a late night snack, so it can only go up from there.
I'm not sure who Steve Schwaid had in mind when he issued the invitation to local bloggers, but judging from the pizza and pop, he probably envisioned people who looked more like his sons than himself. For his sake, I wish the 20 somethings had answered the call instead of our lot. Instead of bright young things with fresh ideas and time and energy to spare, there was a room full of people who (although diverse), were well beyond the age and skill level when working for free sounded like fun and being on TV sounded cool.
The CBS Atlanta project, henceforth to be referred to as "Corporate Memo Item #4", will probably yield some interesting results, but is unlikely to offer much bang for the buck. I'll go out on a limb and predict Nita's video will be the most entertaining of the bunch and, if nothing else, that will redeem the project for me.
10 Responses to “Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Part One.”
It's nothing new for me to be the pollyanna in a crowd. I can be snarky and critical with the best, but this time I'm going to be optimistic.
This was the first in the series of Atlanta blog v MSM events I've attended so I can't fairly compare, but from what I have heard about the previous meetings (held with Atlanta Press Club, GPB, and others that slip my mind) this one was somewhat more open and earnest.
I know Mel would have preferred a fully-fleshed out project with deadlines and goals all set, but I appreciated the more experimental tone of the discussion. Mr Schwaid freely admitted to not knowing as much about the Atlanta online community as he does about broadcast news. I think he was interested in hearing what we had to say and then *perhaps* incorporating that into their project/product.
While I don't think I will fall for anything just for a slice of pizza and a diet coke, I did attend last nights session with an open mind, hopeful that something good can come of it. I am still optimistic.
Time will tell.
Handing out Flip cams to a room full of people with partisan political agendas is a bizarre jumping off point for a local TV news station. They have no clue what they're doing. But we do.
They're going to learn the hard way they were chasing the wrong content providers in that room.
I guess if I seemed unperturbed, it was because I at least think their intentions are coming from a better place than Dave Mastio's appeared to come from. That's not to say I was impressed with the idea of Yet Another Aggregator/Portal. But I am impressed that they're reaching out and willing to experiment.
My comment got deleted! Will the ignominy never end here for me? :'(
Dave Mastio was there?
No Dave Mastio wasn't there. Not even in spirit.
And IRE, what in the world are you talking about?
IRE - I am so sorry! I inadvertently deleted your comment with the spam comments.
@Jen,
No. The local CBS affiliate is creating another aggregator. Mel mentioned last year's dust-up with Mastio in her post as a point of reference.
I agree... I'm not really what they were expecting or who for that matter. As a 20-something, I have to say my fellow youngins likely would have been smarter than to just agree with everything that CBS was pitching to us.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how this all plays out. At the very least, it may help all of us involved gain exposure from a new audience, regardless of whether it's one we care to have.
I'm actually sorry I missed this last night, but I'm out of town.
Since I'm new to these kind of events, I would have been very interested in hearing the guy out.
Since I don't exactly see myself as "cutting edge" I'm not yet bored by the notion that other media is just now arriving at this party and wants to know what they've been missing.
I really don't mind having that conversation, since it could work out to be mutually beneficial, and if not no real skin off my nose-I was at the party anyway.