Book Review: Michael Wolff's "Television is the New Television"

This past summer author and journalist Michael Wolffamp8217s new book Television is the New Television The Unexpected Triumph of Old Media in a Digital Age hit the shelves Connor Zickgraf Charlotte Lipman and Philip Goldsmith of MediaVillage weighamp160inConnor Zickgraf amp160Brilliant Marketing and a Bit of Nostalgia While reading Michael Wolffamp8217s Television is the New Television I was transported back to my days as an NYU student amp160to having similar debates about the past presentamp160and future of the industry in my TVfocused classes Hats off to Prof Evan Shapiro He was a much better teacher than the eversnarky Wolff Even so Wolffamp8217s book is a nice snapshot of where the industry has been and whereamp8217s itamp8217s heading although his most salient points are often lost in overly lengthy sentences and the bookamp8217s muddled organization Instead of a controlled and polished narrative Wolffamp8217s prose reads more as a collection of essays often interrupted by distracting tangents and an underpinning pretentiousness thatamp8217s hard to ignoreBut thatamp8217s not to say that Wolff doesnamp8217t know what heamp8217s talking about at least for the most part If you can get over the snags mentioned above amp160and the skepticism that accompanies reading anything by the man everyone loves to hate amp160you can certainly find value in his conclusions Not to mention a crash course if a somewhat convoluted one on topics like programmatic net neutrality the decline of print mediaamp160and the rise of Silicon Valleyamp160 His claim amp8220television is the new televisionamp8221 is seemingly illogical and yet by the end itamp8217s quite sensible thanks to Wolffamp8217s walkthroughamp160 He points out that looking at televisionamp8217s stillsignificant ad dollars and subscription revenues digital companies like Netflix Amazonamp160and even BuzzFeed are entering the TV game Itamp8217s not that television is going digital digital is going television and chasing higher profitsAs a final thought I think a shout out to Wolffamp8217s marketing team is much deserved Everything about the packaging is provocative amp160from the counterintuitive claim of the title to the amp8220praiseamp8221 on the back cover or rather the list of his criticsamp8217 most biting remarks Anyone who makes a point to spotlight degrading comments like amp8220Possibly the bitchiest media bigfoot writing todayamp8221 certainly has some balls amp160and heamp8217s got our attentionamp160 Whether weamp8217re laughing or cringing at such cheek Wolff reminds us that our mostcutting criticism is only feeding into his marketabilityCharlotte Lipman Isamp160Old Media the quotNewquot New Mediaamp160quotTelevision is the New Televisionquot is a thesis not often observed by journalists heralding death to legacy media Michael Wolff is among other things the exception Wolff39s book though convoluted in its presentation and probably better sampled over time than read in full presents a solid argument amp160the digital media model is not all it39s cracked up to be read not profitableThe economics indicate an eventual race to the bottom as pressureamp160mounts from all sides Content that can be unleashed unlimitedly across digital spheres leads to a decline in quality That decline in turn leads to a decline in the value of the audience which leads to a decline in CPMs While Wolff argues that digital is hardly resolute there is not quite as strong a case for television which is no longer amp8220old mediaamp8221 and suffers by being referenced as such in Wolffamp8217s title Also food for thought maybe Wolff should write a follow up on that most resolute medium radioAnd yet as a amp8220digital nativeamp8221 Millennial who wrote this review after watching two hours of network television live not DVRed FYI I found that it did resonate While reading I kept returning to a fitting industry allegory amp160grade school that time when everyone is seeking to be quotcoolquotamp160and hang with who is quotcoolquot but is ultimately unclear on the very definition of quotcoolquotamp160Digital actually may not be so cool quotTelevision is the New Televisionquot may be at risk of marginalizing some digital players but it39s time the industry stopped sipping the proverbial KoolAidPhilip Goldsmith Television Might Be the New Televisionamp8220Americans spend the vast majority of each day staring at interacting with and deriving satisfaction from glowing rectanglesamp8221 proclaimed The Onion in 2009 The satire is fast becoming reality and those rectangles are increasingly showing video content Itamp8217s an evolution that Michael Wolff explores in his book Television is the New TelevisionHis central argument is that television has survived and in some respects flourished through the digital content revolution that was supposed to make it more and more irrelevant Indeed the opposite is arguably happening The sheer quantity of written content on the Internet competing for a finite and increasingly fickle audience is proving harder and harder to monetize Video particularly premium video is fast becoming the content with the best financial returnsDigital upstarts like Buzzfeed and Vice that find themselves trapped in the hightraffic lowvalue content cycle are piling in to video content as are traditional print publishers like Hearst Even Rupert Murdoch a consummate amp8220newspapermanamp8221 who Wolff notes amp8220has never really watched televisionamp8221 saw the value of the medium and News Corp went on to become one of its biggest playersamp160 Furthermore digital disruptors like Netflix Hulu and Apple are discovering the true value of an old television industry model amp160the licensing dealWith the help of his trademark snark and copious colorful metaphors Wolff barely hides his disdain for the hubris of Silicon Valley and the fact that it has so far failed to kill off television the way it eviscerated traditional newspaper magazine and music businessesamp160 amp8220Television has remained amp8230 televisionamp8221 he saysIn his zeal to prove a point however Wolff too often compares micro trends with macro trends and cherrypicks examples to support his arguments The portrayal of traditional print and digital media purely as lowvalue junk ignores the fact that some successful business deals are emerging in the publishing sector for example The dumbing down of TV news is largely ignored as are the struggles of the movie industry The evolution of the book industry which is arguably the equivalent of much of the new premium TV that Wolff extols is completely ignoredThe result is an entertaining book that gives fascinating insight into the cultural technological and business changes thatamp160television and the wider media industry is undergoing but fails to convince that television being the new television is anything more than a phase in a long ongoing transformation process If the last 20 years of the Internet age haveamp160proven anything itamp8217s that bold predictions about the future of content and consumer trends are futile A more apt title might be amp8220TBD is the new televisionamp8221The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggersamp160 amp160amp160

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Book Review: Michael Wolff's "Television is the New Television"

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Connor Zickgraf

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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Book Review: Michael Wolff's "Television is the New Television"

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