Why PBS Is In Trouble — and how they can fix it
Now, don’t get me wrong.
I love PBS.
I particularly love The Newshour.
Great job Judy Woodruff, Yamiche Alcindor and Jeffery Brown (even if you don’t want to review my new book).
Last night, as all this week, the program was interrupted by their annual begathon. That’s what pays the bills — your contributions.
And, at WNET/13, my local PBS station, Channel 13 President Neil Shapiro comes on air and explains to the viewers why they need more money. Neil explained how expensive it is to provide great programming like you are seeing on The Newshour.
“and the cost of editing is increasing….” said Neil.
What???
The cost of editing is increasing?
Well, probably only at PBS. In the rest of the media world, the cost of editing has been cut to next to nothing, along with the cost of producing any kind of television news.
When I was a producer at WNET/13 — full disclosure, it was one of my first jobs in the TV business — it was where I cut my teeth — editing was indeed expensive and complicated.
Editing was done in giant editing rooms on systems called CMX — not to get too technical, but they looked like Mission Control at NASA. If you wanted to put in a dissolve, you told it to the Director (we were signatories to the DGA — the director’s union) and the Director told it to the editor, who then hit about 30 different buttons, the tape reels swirled back and forth, the lights flashed, you went out for a cup of coffee and presto, a dissolve was created.
What next?
Today, as anyone who has made videos for TikTok, Instagram, IGTV, YouTube, Facebook, or their aunt Tilly, we all know that any 9-year old can make a dissolve with the touch of a screen — and most do. Any 9-year old can edit video on their phone.
Editing has become more expensive? Come on Neil!
Not in the real world — the world that the rest of us live in. Your iPhone or Android has a more powerful video editing capacity than those CMX rooms that Channel 13 is probably still using. And, of course, they are free.
The same goes for the cameras.
Your iPhone or Android has a 4K video camera — that is four times High Def. Four times what your TV set requires. And how hard is it to shoot a TV news story with an iPhone and edit it yourself?
Well, here’s a TV News story done for Spectrum News 1 in Los Angeles by MMJ (that’s multi media journalist) Itay Hod — he works only with iPhones as do many reporters today, he shoots his own stories, he edits them, he reports them. He does it all himself.
Take a look.
Pretty good, huh?
You bet.
Editing costs are not going up.
Editing costs are coming way down — like next to nothing, as are all other costs.
Of course, I am willing to bet that WNET/13 President Neil Shapiro probably does not know this. I am willing to bet that WNET/13 President Neil Shapiro has probably never shot or edited video in his life.
OK. I get it. I have met lots of TV executives who have never actually touched the gear.
I get it.
So Neil, call me up. eMail me (Michael@Rosenblumtv.com) and I will come over and teach you how to report, shoot, edit and produce your own stories, by yourself, on an iPhone at next to no cost and get outstanding quality every time.
OK, I will do it on Zoom.
I am a big fan of video literacy
Particularly for management.
Then we can teach all of your staff to do their own work on their phones.
Think how many cameras and reporters you could put on the street every day.
For a few years, I was the President of New York Times Television (so I know executives).
At The New York Times, every single member of the staff has a pencil and knows how to write a story. Print literate.
Now TV news can work just like The NY Times.
It can.
Best regards
