Good times with Robin

During the summer of 1972, I met Robin Williams. We had friends in common and spent time together in Marin County, California.

My New York college roommates and I had heard about this intriguing place north of San Francisco. Hot tubs and “California Girls” along with a reputation for “laid-back” attitude led us to Marin. After finding some like-minded locals near San Anselmo, we rented a house for July and August. Here’s the picture: a half a dozen or so men in their early twenties, half from New York and the rest from Northern California; it was a fun-filled summer. Robin did not live in the house, but he was friends with the Californians and was a regular around dinnertime and for Sunday softball games. What I remember most about being around Robin was that he was always on. He was funny, thoughtful in an endearing way, and impossible to shut up, not that anyone wanted him to stop. One night, I was at the sink doing dishes. Robin wandered into the kitchen and started telling jokes, doing voices and generally carrying on. Pretty soon everyone in the house was there, keeping the dish-washer company as Robin entertained us all. We knew, too, that Robin was a fine actor. He performed regularly in the College of Marin theater program. I remember seeing him in Fiddler on the Roof and also doing Shakespeare. To a person, we all got it. He was special and the rest of the world would soon find out.

Years later, we were both in NY, he at Juilliard and I at ABC News. We'd bump into each other in Central Park or the streets of the West Side every few months. Robin wasn't famous yet, so it was just two guys who had just a little in common. Sometimes I would see him on Sundays doing mime in the park. He would always draw a crowd; he was that good. After all, to paraphrase Charlie Chaplin, the street is the most legitimate theater of all. As was the case in California, he was always funny. And more than anybody I ever met, he had the ability to energetically entertain all who would listen, spontaneously and smartly.

I ran into Robin one time later, at the SF airport. He was a big star by then, in the middle of his run on Mork and Mindy. You'd never know it though; he was down to earth, the same friendly guy.

What a loss. He's the funniest guy I ever met. So glad, though, he got to do what he did so well and enrich all our lives.

Powerful new partnerships for productive TV news

            The hierarchy of television and digital news media is undergoing a paradigm shift not by design but by necessity. As newer technologies become more accessible and engaging they push other technologies aside. Though the new forms don’t replace the older technologies, the newer formats and delivery methods re-align the role of each medium. A research driven example of this is that we know many viewers begin their day by checking social media on a portable device before turning on the TV or radio. What they see on Facebook and Twitter influences what they tune into or choose to ignore. News organizations that understand the power of portable digital news delivery and how it differs from—and interacts with--television can improve penetration and ratings on both digital and legacy platforms by effectively nurturing powerful partnerships.

The traditional hierarchy has the network news organization covering big national and international stories. The local stations cover their communities. They work together providing content. Network affiliate news services give the stations stories from around the globe and the stations provide immediate access to local audio, video, and live coverage when the networks cannot send their own crews. What has changed dramatically in the last decade is that the most immediate “up close and personal” coverage now comes from ordinary people who have the tools to convey content right in their pockets. In the local news area, often the most immediate and accurate information about breaking news is available on Facebook and Twitter. This is also true in big story coverage of international events, from Tehran and Tahrir Square to the shores near Fukishima. Sometimes the information is generated by ordinary citizens; sometimes it comes from official government sources; and in a less dominant role in the new hierarchy, it also comes from legacy national and local media such as TV, radio, and newspapers.

The new paradigm requires legacy media to not only create and generate content but to also “curate” the abundant amount of information that is at our fingertips. This is especially important for the legacy TV networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, because of their connection to local stations in every market. We learned during two recent big breaking stories—the school shooting in Connecticut and the Boston Marathon bombing—that information flows fast and furiously and is often incorrect or incomplete. For trusted legacy news organizations, getting it right has never been more critical. To this end, creating the most effective partnerships with local stations and the stations’ sources—both grass roots and traditional--will bear tremendous benefits during big stories and for enterprise coverage that is unique.

Trusted legacy media can capitalize on the new news hierarchy in a number of ways. First, in the case of NBC--as just one example--the personalities of the Peacock convey at least two distinct benefits. The NBC brand continues to be valuable and serves as an imprimatur for content that can be trusted by users and viewers. Then there are the actual personalities. Brian Williams, Matt Lauer, Al Roker, Nancy Snyderman, and all their local counterparts enter the homes of viewers on a regular basis. We know that viewers form para-social relationships with TV personalities that can be quite powerful. For example, when Katie Couric went on the air to extol the benefits of colonoscopy, there was a statistically significant increase in the procedure throughout the country. So NBC, along with the other network brands, and the power of their on-air personalities serve as magnets for solidifying old relationships and building new partnerships.

The Medium Is Still The Message

Marshall McLuhan’s observations about media and message may be more on target in the digital era than we might have imagined 50 years ago. For national news network partnerships to flourish, understanding the new paradigm involves using content that is quickly generated, short in duration, yet compelling and reliable. For the Twitter and Facebook generation, news teams have to have reliable community collaborators, partners in news. These are the trusted sources that can be relied upon for information, but can also generate content that can be used effectively on the various platforms of old line network news organizations and their affiliate partners. A different aesthetic works on a smart phone than on a 50-inch HD monitor. This is key to making the paradigm real. The simpler and more lean production values of digital device content allow non-journalists to create real journalism. And that is where the curator role becomes key. The journalists have to decipher and filter the flow of information to distinguish what is news and what is something else. It’s the old gatekeeper role but with a new twist.

The West Seattle Blog is one good example of a trustworthy local news source that generates reliable content. This is in sharp contrast to the AOL Patch sites in a key way. AOL recently announced it was cutting back its investment in Patch. Many local Patch sites do a fine job. But the difference between the West Seattle Blog and Patch is that the West Seattle Blog was locally created and entrepreneurial. Another trustworthy grassroots news source is the Voiceof San Diego. Also locally created, VOSD uses a membership model, similar to public TV and radio to generate revenue. Patch, on the other hand, is a corporate creation that may work in some locations but loses its power when it becomes a top down creation to be replicated from one community to the next.

Trusted partnerships that generate content must be nurtured and supported. The old relationship of national network to local affiliate is the foundation of the new paradigm but is more of a starting point than end point. Ideally, each network or legacy news stations will devote key staffers to nurture relationships with grass roots news groups in the neighborhoods and communities that make up the nation. Building these relationships and supporting the stations’ engagement with the best grass roots sources in their communities will generate unique content. This content will flow during breaking news emergencies and on slower days when enterprise stories help the stations and network stand out. Most important, the new paradigm means the successful news organization will no longer only follow the “It’s news because I say it’s news” sensibility of years past. Instead, the task will be to connect with the public in ways that allow journalists to recognize real news whether it comes from a 17 year old Brian Williams wannabe with a smart phone or the White House press office.

The appetite for journalism from the bottom up will continue to grow. The possibilities for growth and engagement across media great and small are exciting opportunities. News organizations must nurture networks of contributors forming partnerships with local stations and grass roots producers that can tell stories that rise to the level of interesting journalism. The symbolic frame through which network news organizations must evolve means the circled ABC, The CBS Eye, and the NBC Peacock will have new meaning and relevance. Instead of signifying the networks that pioneered instant replay, You are There, and color TV in the middle of the last century, the symbols will now stand for partnerships with the public that use all the tools of today to inform, entertain, and even enlighten.

Notes: 1. “Up close and personal” is an old ABC Sports description of its coverage.

2. The final line is a paraphrase of Edward R. Murrow’s comment about TV. The actual quote is: This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box.