Hope can be a dangerous entity. However, journalists might just hold on to it for a while longer. Your industry and your jobs could be saved by mobile. Actually mobile could return the newspaper to being a key institution in society.
I looked at this possibility for the financial information company Motley Fool.
And here you can read all about it.
C.S. Lewis observed that experience is a brutal teacher but we learn, god, how we learn.
With the current volatility in the economy and how the media can upend careers, comebacks are more common. Or at least the attempt at them. Also, another force driving comebacks is simple aging and there is a lot of that these days.
So, many of us are watching Madonna, now over-50. Can she pull off a comeback? She performed at halftime during the SuperBowl. She did a film on the Duchess of Windsor. She produced a new album MDNA.
It is frequently with some glee that both the official media and twitters opine critically about this comeback. In FORBES, for example, Roger Friedman reports that album MDNA had the second week biggest drop in sales history. It went from 359,000 the first week to 46,000 the second. The first week's numbers were partly due to the CDs included with the sale of concert tickets.
Is Madonna, who always had more than the average share of highly vocal critics, under the microscrope because what she has recently been turning out is not exciting? Or is it because her aging makes her a target in the entertainment world which can be brutal on those over even 40?
The interesting thing to watch here is what Madonna does, both in the art and science (proven promotional formulas), to remain relevant. We have noticed how former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has yet to catch on again. He has tried being a columnist and a talker on TV. Former politico Al Gore has never really made it back after his splash in positioning global warming as the cause. His Current TV isn't doing so hot. Oprah Winfrey is starting out yet again to make OWN a go.
On the other hand, Hillary Clinton roared back as Secretary of State after her defeat in campaigning for the White House. Me? To my surprise I have been able to come back yet again. Most recently it was from the error of trying to have a young - read that "snarky" - voice on the web. Among others, Gawker panned me. But here I am back. My list of clients from the establishment and startups is growing. If there is a secret to the comeback it is to become hopeless or bottom out. Henry Cloud has lots of wisdom on that in his book "Necessary Endings." That dynamic also underlines 12-step programs: Surrender to win. Before this, my last comeback was around 2004 (Download Geezerguts).
From the get-go, civilization learned that gossip was a necessary survival tool. Cave men depended on information from each other about the most productive hunting spots and who was dallying with whose mate. In addition to helping human beings make it in harsh circumstances, what was gossiped about informed them of social mores.
So, it's no surprise that in capitalist America gossip grew to be a big industry. After his ouster from Hollywood, the late Dominick Dunne built a second career as a high end gossiper. Thanks to the sources he developed his gossipy pieces were published in VANITY FAIR. Bonnie Fuller was one who have good run with celebrity gossip. Media properties in the gossip niche thrived and some like THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER even gained establisment credibility.
Gossip isn't going away. It can't. But the industry is changing. For example, in JOURNALISM.CO.UK, we find out that in celebrity gossip OK! circulation is down 13.9%, STAR, down 16.4%, and HEAT, down 12.1%. There, as well as in just plain-vanilla gossip about professionals in business, law, and so on, gossip has migrated from specialty coverage to almost becoming a must-have in all media. Of course, it must be managed artfully for the media property not to lose its credibility. An example of that is THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Law Blog. Reporting on developing problems in a law firm where partners are defecting is mixed with careful analysis of a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
And because of social media, low cost and high reach, Everyman and Everywoman can become a kind of Dominick Dunne. We can do that directly by setting up a blog, Facebook personal and/or fan site, Google+ hangout, and twitter account. Indirectly, we can do that by leaving comments on other sites. Those comments are taken so seriously that more media properties as designating staff to monitor the traffic.
Not embedding gossip can be a competitive disadvantage.
As writers know, at least those serious about the craft and who get somewhere, the inner software which equips them for that line of work is atypical. Let's leave it at that, not attempting to assess if it's better or worse than the software which runs the rest of the human race.
Because of this obvious difference, writers tend to isolate, even if they appear publicly to be among people. Yeah, hiding in plain sight. Look at Truman Capote, supposedly gregarious, who never really was himself out there. The role he played, as Falstaff to the wealthy, finally destroyed him. He turned to drink, which finished him off.
Like many writers, Truman defaulted into the myth, whose foundation was laid down by Irish literary geniuses, that his unique talent gave him license to drink as much as he wanted. Actually what it did do is impair his judgment. Otherwise he would not have assumed he could out the rich in his later writings and get away with it. He was their entertainment, not a member of the tribe.
Last night at our usual 12-step meeting in North Haven, Connecticut, it was announced that the West Haven, Connecticut 12-step club was sponsoring a traditional Irish feast, sans booze, for St. Patrick's Day. The writers among us had no excuse to become Irish for the holiday and embrace the centuries old mythology that being unusually sensitive permitted us to be unusually self-destructive, without dire consequences.
The sweet spot in human affairs has always been emotional intelligence. Dan Goleman documented that in the 1990s and David Brooks has brought that up to date with his "The Social Animal."
What has stood out for years is, of course, Timothy Dolan's high emotional intelligence. He has been a leader in the Catholic Church in New York. Coverage from the media, as we are seeing during his elevation to Cardinal, highlights his sunny, even jolly personality. No Irish Machine Boss in 1940s Hudson County, New Jersey could be more charming and accessible.
Now Dolan, as a cardinal of the Roman Catholic, might be able to save that global brand which has endured much longer than other brands. This is one to watch. Within the realm of possibility is that he could become the first American pope.
This Saturday Whitney Houston will be laid to rest in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey. For this Jersey Girl, the flags in her city will be lowered.
May this once suffering soul enjoy her new-found peace, back at home.
Wise man Gore Vidal observed that it is not enough for a person to succeed. All others must fail. He tapped into the dark side of human nature. And there has been plenty of that when it comes to the career of Madonna. She made more than the usual share of enemies. And, face it, even those who praise her accomplishments likely resent them and her.
Well revenge is patient. Many, including close relatives in the part of my family still practicing Catholicism, knew that Madonna would get hers when she began aging. No longer is death the great equalizer. Aging is. We are living longer, didn't expect to, and are having a hell of a time coping with not being young.
Madonna did age. And that was the focus of plenty of snide tweets during her halftime performance at the SuperBowl. Revenge had waited. And then it broke forth. Madonna will continue to get older. That's the way it goes. And that's what "they" have on her. Joy has filled the land.
So many of us Baby Boomers remember Madonna as the girl from Detroit who was wicked smart enough as well as hungry and bold enough to exploit her Catholic background. Her bet was right. The anger of the Catholic Church fueled her rise to the top. She never gave that piece up. She named her daughter Lourdes after the Catholic shrine where the sick are cured.
So, we wondered how she was going to handle that great equalizer aging. As we live longer and have to struggle like hell to hold onto a career in a volatile marketplace, it's aging not death which has become so scary. Death would relieve us of our debt, at least.
Well, Madonna seems to be wise about embracing her own aging. At halftime during the SuperBowl she did not try to act young. Instead she gained control of her act by surrounding herself with youth.
Some may frame this as her comeback. She has a new movie coming out this week and a new album in March. But, I view her performance tonight as more her creating the platform for a mellow entertainer who knows how to put on a good show. She will likely travel the world trying to find talent to front load her acts.
For those of us Baby Boomers who are determined to continue to work Madonna might just prove to be a role model.
