Western Standard - February 15, 2024


Legacy media needs to evolve or die


Episode Stats

Length

5 minutes

Words per Minute

213.20688

Word Count

1,214

Sentence Count

93

Misogynist Sentences

1


Summary

People need to adapt to change, rather than fight it, to keep up with it. That s the key to economic growth, and that's what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be focusing on in order to keep pace with the times.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I'm going to go back in time a bit for those who remember the 80s and late 70s.
00:00:03.820 If you remember the Buggles, they released a hit single, and this is an earworm, this one.
00:00:08.080 And, you know, video killed the radio star, if you remember it.
00:00:10.480 That was nearly 45 years ago.
00:00:12.520 And that song bemoaned the end of radio-based stardom for musicians because music videos were hitting the scene.
00:00:19.200 Well, it's getting near half a century since that song came out.
00:00:22.000 And music-based radio stations, they're starting to fade away, but it took until now.
00:00:26.100 And it's not video that's taking them out, it's streaming music options like Spotify that led to the change.
00:00:31.980 And the stars aren't gone.
00:00:33.500 They've just moved on to a new platform.
00:00:34.920 I mean, even if every radio station was to shut down today, like her hater, Taylor Swift would remain a household name and would pack stadiums for her shows.
00:00:43.300 Things have just changed, that's all.
00:00:45.100 Musicians in the early 1980s who weren't willing to embrace videos, well, they were often left behind, especially once MTV became huge.
00:00:51.640 So artists so willing to change with the times found videos provided a whole new platform to reach audiences.
00:00:56.480 So rather than whining that video killed the radio stars, they actually found a new way to make money.
00:01:00.920 And they did very well with it.
00:01:02.380 Every technological change brings out people claiming it's going to wipe out jobs or destroy an industry.
00:01:07.540 Now, while tech-inspired transitions can be disruptive and harmful if an inflexible market is out there, you know, but products, industries, they evolve.
00:01:17.020 And jobs remain for those willing to do things differently.
00:01:19.520 I mean, myself, I used to work as a surveyor in oil exploration.
00:01:22.540 I'd been trained in using a transit and a theodolite.
00:01:25.360 GPS made that mode of surveying pretty much obsolete.
00:01:27.840 And I had the choice to adapt or lose my job.
00:01:30.020 Well, I adapted.
00:01:31.320 Mechanized agricultural practices.
00:01:32.940 I mean, they did put millions of farm laborers out of work.
00:01:36.600 Remember the Jode family and Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath.
00:01:39.200 They were initially displaced because of new tractors working the cotton fields.
00:01:42.960 But while new agricultural technology caused a lot of social and economic upheaval for a time,
00:01:47.420 should governments have tried to block the evolution or subsidize people to plant and harvest crops by hand?
00:01:54.180 Technological advances have since increased agricultural production to the point where famine is rare in a world with 8 billion people in it.
00:02:00.880 And the evolution caused pain, but it was worthwhile in the long run.
00:02:03.500 And labor balanced itself out as people learn and embrace new skills.
00:02:07.360 Getting back to the arts.
00:02:08.600 Stage performers, I mean, they feared moving pictures would wipe out their industry back at the turn of the 20th century, the start of it.
00:02:14.960 But Broadway's still going strong today.
00:02:17.300 Movie stars, they feared television would wipe out their industry.
00:02:19.860 Well, movies and the stars associated with them are still doing quite fine.
00:02:23.500 Artists willing to flex were actually provided with a broader spectrum of performance options.
00:02:27.920 Netflix, they began as a movie rental company.
00:02:30.480 Actually, they delivered DVDs.
00:02:32.160 Then they started a streaming service.
00:02:33.680 Blockbuster, though, they were a movie rental company and they stuck to their guns.
00:02:37.720 Well, Blockbuster went from an industry giant to oblivion.
00:02:40.580 And Netflix is now worth an estimated $240 billion.
00:02:45.020 Changes can hurt and the transition periods can be messy, but the change is inevitable.
00:02:49.820 People need to adapt to change rather than try to fight it.
00:02:52.640 Or worse, people could try getting the government to fight the change on their behalf.
00:02:57.100 And that brings us to the state of today's news media.
00:03:00.560 Conventional news media has been in a state of steady decline for nearly 20 years now.
00:03:04.260 The collapse of the industry has been accelerating.
00:03:05.920 And the recent spate of layoffs in Canada by CTV sort of drove that point home.
00:03:10.260 But instead of seeking rational ways to facilitate the transition of an industry in flux, Trudeau had a temper tantrum during a news conference.
00:03:17.380 And he declared, I'm pissed off.
00:03:19.540 At what?
00:03:20.420 How?
00:03:21.740 How long does Trudeau expect a business to continue without a viable business model?
00:03:25.940 Of course, it's a bit much to expect Trudeau to understand even the most basic of business or economic principles.
00:03:30.440 If he hasn't caught a glimmer or sense to those issues, you know, by now he's not gonna.
00:03:34.140 Trudeau's government's been pumping incentives and direct subsidies into legacy media outlets for years.
00:03:38.520 And it's failing.
00:03:39.740 I mean, ostensibly they're doing it to save an industry deemed too important to fail.
00:03:43.880 In reality, of course, he's more motivated in buying the love of media for his embattled regime.
00:03:48.300 And he has bought a little bit of love.
00:03:50.440 I mean, they're certainly holding the leader of the official opposition to account.
00:03:53.600 But media outlets can't afford to operate under those outdated models.
00:03:56.740 The layoffs and closures are gonna continue.
00:03:59.060 If anything, Trudeau's handouts to media outlets have made things worse.
00:04:02.160 Legacy media outlets, they've quickly become dependent upon subsidies rather than looking at ways to adapt to changing times.
00:04:09.240 And Trudeau tried a failed cash grab on social media giants like Facebook.
00:04:13.000 And not only did it fail to garner any money, but it took away a means of drawing traffic to media sites,
00:04:17.960 causing them all, whether large or small, to lose revenue.
00:04:20.800 Yeah, he made it worse.
00:04:22.400 Outlets counting on checks from Facebook.
00:04:24.280 Yeah, they're suddenly realizing that money isn't coming.
00:04:26.380 And now they're starting to cut.
00:04:27.220 Look, guys, print newspapers, they're not coming back to where they were again.
00:04:31.440 People aren't gonna pay for classified ads again.
00:04:33.760 Families aren't gonna gather around the TV to watch the evening news anymore.
00:04:36.680 Those days are gone.
00:04:37.740 The market isn't gone, though.
00:04:39.160 It's just diluted.
00:04:40.640 And people have so many new means to seek entertainment and information.
00:04:43.540 We just don't need some of the services news outlets are trying to provide.
00:04:47.420 They need to change.
00:04:48.240 They need to flex.
00:04:48.780 I can find the weather forecast for my area or anywhere else in the world within seconds on my phone.
00:04:54.480 So why are TV stations still bothering with meteorologists on staff?
00:04:57.300 That's just one example.
00:04:58.920 I can go directly to websites to find information that I used to have to get from newspapers and broadcast outlets.
00:05:03.360 Now, people still want to read, view, and listen to news and opinion.
00:05:06.900 And they're willing to spend money to do so, as the Western Standard subscription model is proving.
00:05:11.300 But the outlets need to be lean, targeted, and efficient now.
00:05:14.720 No more giant buildings, no large studios, and no printing presses.
00:05:18.080 As with every other industry, the news media will adapt to a working model,
00:05:22.140 though many outlets are going to fall by the wayside during the transition.
00:05:24.760 Subsidizing existing outlets is doing little more than animating a corpse at this point.
00:05:29.320 As with most things, all the government needs to do with media is just get out of the bloody way.
00:05:32.960 It's going to take care of itself.
00:05:34.820 That's unfortunately contrary to the authoritarian nature, though, of the Trudeau regime.
00:05:38.640 Let's hope the next administration knows how to back off.