Jeffrey Pohlman

Too many rules spoil the plot? The recent withdrawal of the second draft of the Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill has sparked mixed reactions in the media industry. While some see it as a positive sign, many remain cautious. Key takeaways: ➡ Relief, but not celebration: The extension of the consultation period for the first draft is viewed as a temporary reprieve. However, concerns remain about the first draft's content evaluation provisions, potential for censorship, and lack of clear guidelines. ➡ Seeking clarity: Industry stakeholders are eager to understand the government's true intentions. Is this a genuine move to incorporate feedback, or simply a delay tactic before implementing stricter controls? ➡ Call for open dialogue: Stakeholders demand for a more transparent and inclusive approach to media regulation. ➡ Focus on differentiation: A significant part of the industry reiterates the need for distinct regulations for linear TV and OTT platforms, acknowledging their fundamentally different models. ➡ Uncertainty persists: As the industry awaits the revised draft, a sense of uncertainty continues. Questions linger about how effectively feedback will be addressed and the potential impact on independent media and content creation. Let's discuss! #BroadcastBill #MediaRegulation #ContentFreedom Meanwhile for a deeper dive you can read exchange4media's hot take on the subject. Link is in the comments section.

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On Today's Episode of Most Impactful Journalists: John Peter Zenger Discover how John Peter Zenger, a courageous printer, and immigrant, challenged corruption and fought for press freedom in America with the landmark "Zenger Trial." His legacy continues to inspire journalists today. #JournalismHistory #PressFreedom #Facts #lpujournalism #Media #lpu #lpuuniversity #lpudiaries #lpucampus #thinkbig

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I’d like to dispute this statement… “The headwinds facing local journalism nationwide made it essential to strategically reimagine how we deliver the news for the most impact.” I won’t address how this essential move will strategically reimagine how to deliver the news for the most impact—but I will dispute the first part of that sentence. The headwinds are not facing local journalism nationwide. They are (and have been for many years) facing local journalism JOBS nationwide. Jobs that pay a living wage in some of the most expensive cities in the country—and in some of the smallest towns, where you’d be shocked if you knew how little some of your local reporters are paid. Americans are clamoring for local news. They’re clamoring for national news. They want to know what’s happening in the world and in their neighborhoods. But because the headwinds include an incessant need to help giant companies dig themselves out of financial holes they themselves created, local journalism is disappearing. The AM-FM fight over the radio news space, and the role of radio in general is a story for another day. For now, let’s just say that WCBS 880 is (was) a great station full of award-winning broadcasters who know how to tell a story. They’ll take their talents elsewhere, hopefully. But it won’t be the same as turning on 880 in my car or at home or on my app and listening to all that local journalism in one place. NYC is less because of this decision. https://lnkd.in/eFxhDfrU

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For today's Wide Shot newsletter, we return to the question of whether streaming is a good business and, more precisely, for whom? We address cable giant John Malone's recent assessment (categorically "no") and take a look at the state of Netflix, Disney, Paramount and others who participated in the streaming war. Who's winning? Who's still losing money? What's the next stage of the streaming business? (Oh, we also get into JOKER 2's box office travesty). #entertainmentbusiness #hollywood #streaming

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I couldn't agree more with Jason Kilar, CEO of WarnerMedia prior to the Discovery takeover: the #streaming business can be incredibly attractive for media companies and investors. Kilar recently quoted Charles Darwin, stating, “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." We see this natural selection playing out in the #Media industry today. Some companies are adapting, while others are leaning back. To be clear: there is a path to growth, scale, and attractive margins for legacy media companies in streaming. But it requires leaving behind many old management practices and thinking and embracing change and innovation. #Strategy #BusinessGrowth #Innovation #DigitalTransformation #MediaEconomics #Netflix #Leadership #Investing

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The Cumulus compensation ploy • May 2nd Cumulus had their annual shareholders meeting and they were not talking about what their angry investors did. • They approved one thing – their account firm. • When asked to re-elect their board of directors, a surprising and resounding outcome. • The company is still laying employees off and shrinking operations so when they asked shareholders to show a financial vote of confidence in them, an even greater surprise. • What’s really going on here – a questionable debt exchange deal, a second bankruptcy and a growing rift between investors and their top management. https://lnkd.in/gQRZYCWq

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Radio ad demand is shrinking • How the major radio groups are privately dealing with declining advertising. • What market managers are doing to save the day (and their jobs). • The non-radio solutions being teed up by radio groups. • What some radio groups have turned to quarter by quarter to offset ad revenue declines with artificial cash infusions. • Typical market manager response to shrinking ad demand. https://lnkd.in/eXGHPhTM

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New York Magazine (NYMag) published The Power Issue with a piece on the state of journalism titled “Can the Media Survive?” that everyone in media and communications was sharing and commenting on. The story was a roundup of journalism industry elites dunking on the business (and one another) in mostly anonymous quotes. The TL;DR, as NYMag put it: “All of these media insiders have watched up close as the business that undergirds journalism changed dramatically in the past decade, and almost all of them would agree that it hasn’t, for the most part, been for the better.” It also unleashed a flurry of reactionary newsletters, tweets, and texts from my old journalism peers, who largely shared the sentiment that Ernie Smith, writer of the Tedium newsletter, said on Threads: “It’s telling that only two people on this entire list went on record.” There were a lot of shots fired. Of note, Hamish McKenzie, co-founder of Substack in a post titled I’m (not) one of the 57 most powerful people in media said, “There are few things that the media industry likes to talk about more than itself. The pity is that it is an increasingly small and irrelevant bubble, and so there are fewer and fewer people around to listen.” While this NYMag story was about journalism, the reality is it exists within the broader “media” industry, which is awash in content of varying degrees of quality while dealing with shifting consumer preferences. Meanwhile, every single creator of content is competing with social media platforms that are so good at constantly changing to better capture people’s time and attention. In the non-journalistic media world, there’s a broader re-focusing on content audiences are obsessed with, regardless of platform. This debate was online and IRL (and I'll put more commentary in the comments) but the important takeaway is that we are clearly at an inflection point where the industry is aligning that: Publishing for scale and creating for audience are not the same thing.  The next generation of journalism should also certainly strive to be seen as valuable to the next generation of readers. When I ask my under-40s peers what their news media diet looks like, there’s always a few select masthead homepages sprinkled in, but the vast majority comes from whatever hits their TikTok, Instagram or YouTube Shorts feeds. The evolution of journalists as creators and vice versa is the defining issue. TOMORROW, I’m speaking with Dave Jorgenson, senior video reporter at the Washington Post who leads their stellar TikTok channel, for a keynote at the Future of Television conference in LA. This is something we’ll talk about – let me know if you want a ticket; I have a few extra. Subscribe for more: https://lnkd.in/gnRggM7f

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While not as clear-cut as roads, clean water, and air, the democratic value to society of public interest journalism is, in my book and many others, a public good, writes Daily Maverick's Styli C.. "The recent tsunami of bad news about the news has raised an interesting question. Are we seeing the effects of a market failure playing out, or are we seeing the death of an industry that failed to innovate and keep up with the times?" #journalism #publicinterest #news #publishing

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Enjoyed moderating a fascinating panel session at FOCUS on December 11 about the future of TV. The panel of leading experts touched on some interesting topics, including the YouTube and Meta boom, how the streamers are fairing, the impact of AI and how popular old IPs are being re-packaged for the new interactive generation... https://lnkd.in/eBFFKq9b

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ICYMI - The Week In Review looks at why most of The Trade Desk's "Top 100 Publishers on the Open Internet" list consists of streaming TV services and networks with URLs and why the list resembles a big consumer brands' media plan circa 1987. We also look at Nielsen's plans to measure Lionsgate's FAST channel and wonder why we're the only ones asking "Okay, but how?" https://lnkd.in/e8kpPVBE

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In 2025, US journalists will face profound challenges — and opportunities. They will be covering: ↳ A new presidential administration ↳ Accelerating societal change ↳ Breathtaking innovations ↳ Somber occurrences To cover these stories, journalists will need: 📝 Facts 📝 Context & analysis 📝 Experts Make it one of your New Year’s resolutions to help a journalist out! If you see a story happening, reach out to a journalist on that beat (coverage area). ✅ Offer your take, informed by your experience in that area. ✅ Offer value to the audience. ✅ And offer your availability. Journalists need experts to make sense of the world. To help them tell stories. You can help. PRO TIP: If you’re struggling to get started, just join my next free Masterclass! Happy new year 🎈 #newyearseve #resolution

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Thanks to Amagi for inviting me to their next webinar (ttps://lnkd.in/eaKwC2Xq) for a fireside chat about what's next in the broadcasting market. On September 24, I'll detail some of the latest technology trends, discuss where the broadcasting business is headed, and answer your questions. You can register for the event here: https://lnkd.in/eaKwC2Xq Amagi Corporation Srinivasan (Srini) KA #streamingmedia #amagi

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TrueMedia - one of the best AI detection tools out there for researchers and journalists/fact-checkers, is being discontinued. I can't call it a double whammy because there have been only whammies for Indian fact-checkers lately but...Itisaar - a tool developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Jodhpur, was discontinued in the second half of last year underscoring the many challenges in developing and running such AI detection tools. Meanwhile, academics and journalists mainly from the global north keep writing that the fear of deepfakes were overblown. My worry is that this sort of statement signals to Big Tech that their technology is not being misused in other parts of the world or that it's a very negligible percentage of bad actors doing it and that guardrails are nice but optional. Our experience in India shows otherwise. Just hours ahead of voting in the state of Maharashtra , the ruling party tweeted four AI voice clones targeting opposition politicians, in November 2024. Most of Indian mainstream news outlets ran these clips as "alleged leaked audio clips" even though they were clearly AI generated. https://lnkd.in/dXjSKWxF One can argue that is not enough to sway a potential voter's mind but one can say with some certainty that it shows political parties ARE weaponising this tech. I along with Himanshu Panday reported that Meta AI's text-to-image feature is being weaponised to make harmful hate speech images targeting minorities in India. https://lnkd.in/dmrizgtS

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What the FCC has Against Audacy • The unspoken damage the FCC is doing to Audacy. • Why other radio bankruptcies got the green light to emerge quicker. • How this delay jeopardizes the Soros plan to rebuild Audacy. • The delay’s effect on Audacy’s plan to sell, consolidate or shut down some stations. https://lnkd.in/eh8pVJnY

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The stage was set at the NAB Show 2024. Hundreds of products battled for supremacy in the ever-evolving streaming video arena. Tensions were high as the industry's elite judging panel meticulously evaluated each offering. Then, a true champion emerged from the fray. Vimond's VIA App Builder captivated the experts with a perfect fusion of power and elegance. Features that dazzled: - Lightning-fast development capabilities that make deploying streaming services across devices a mere formality. - An interface so intuitive even a novice could wield its might. - Unparalleled content management that monetises like never before. In an epic clash of innovation, the VIA App Builder reigned supreme – conquering the "Next TV" category to seize the coveted Best of Show honour. A thousand competitors stood in awe. This was more than just an award. It was a statement of Vimond's unwavering commitment to streamlining video streaming for the modern era. An undisputed mark of quality that will shatter industry conventions. The victory horn has sounded. All others have been put on notice. Brace yourselves for the VIA App Builder's continued dominance, as it leads content creators to a new era of broadcast supremacy. https://lnkd.in/gssvefKG

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I'm back from maternity leave, with two babies and two stories to share! We've started a new series, AI Insights, which I'm kicking off with interviews with the Transformer 8. These former Google researchers are the authors of the 2017 "Attention is All You Need" paper that established the transformer neural network architecture that makes generative AI possible. Fascinating minds. My first conversation is with Illia Polosukhin, the first to leave Google before the paper even published, to co-found AI blockchain startup NEAR Protocol. He's a big believer in user-owned AI https://lnkd.in/g_UGWxNx

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Meet the subscription pausers - the growing pool of people who turn off streaming video services, only to return to them within a year. As streaming becomes the norm in our living rooms, more of us are doing several stints as customers of major services, saying goodbye for now, but not forever when a season of sports or a hit show ends. The upshot? Industry-wide customer defections aren't as bad as they look. Here's my latest story with new data from Antenna that sheds light on the trend. Are you a subsription pauser? https://lnkd.in/gyFHrfNP #streamingvideo #SVOD #streaming

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