Why "Obama's Mac" to "Hillary's PC" Is Just the Beginning of a Paradigm Shift In Business & Media - MediaBizBuzz for March 31, 2008

Last month The New York Times parsed the appeal of both Democratic presidential campaigners: Positing that Obama was a Mac and Clinton a PC. While the article was superficial, it had a spine. Two stories wound me back to the discussion and deepened it: A look at CoreBrand's Power 100 on AllThingsD and how the Mac ads just might have contributed to Microsoft cratering, and Fast Company's April cover story: The Brand That Is Obama. In brief: Obama's success is attributed to three qualities: openness, authenticity, and the need for a global brand image. We learn that Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes took a sabbatical from the social network and is no small reason why Barack's Web 2.0. Within, the frontrunner's touted as an "Open Brand," a locus of "adaptive leadership." It's also duly noted that while corporate America seats less than one-third African-Americans on its boards, women are more underrepresented at 15%. Hillary's candidacy should stand for a paradigm shift, but instead, at this point -- after a week of party elders admonishing her to concede the nomination -- Slate's instituted The Hillary Deathwatch. It should be a widget. Takeaway? Last week's stock market volatility, the Fed bailout, indeed moves in music, video, journalism, ought to be apprised in this prism. Often, it's the difference between business-as-usual made to look shiny and new, and true innovation. See if you can spot the difference.

Brother Can You Spare A Billion?
The financial sector is still in the tank. And the Fed's bailout of Bear Stearns has given way to Congressional investigations. If we can prop up an investment bank, goes the thinking, why not the subprime mortage foreclosures? Last week the Bush administration spoke of "overcorrections," now it's warming to the writedown of principal. Look for less and less daylight between its plans and the Democratic majority's. In the midst of all this, BusinessWeek kindly validates Henry Blodget's parking pass.

Change of Heart
After months of rancor, Comcast agreed to treat all data files as equal, even going so far as to enter into some sort of partnership with BitTorrent. FCC head Kevin Martin commended the policy change, cautioning that he'd be monitoring its network management practices until the projected end-of-year about face. [Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey is even more resolute about the need for Net Neutrality.] While pundits lauded its 180, Comcast is not without motive. I simply think it has bigger fish to fry -- including a filing alleging (with some reason) that the FCC is biased towards telcos. Vuze -- which filed a white paper against Comcast this past winter -- is offering tools to the consumer to help them detect if their ISP is throttling traffic by looking for "reset packages." If only making up were that simple for Barry Diller and John Malone. In a surprise decision -- does this sound like a prizefight? -- a Delaware judge ruled that Diller had legal standing to break up IAC into five separate entities. The decision does not prevent a Malone endgame. PaidContent follows the tale: the ruling and the whole damn soap opera. Nature abhors a vacuum. If the Diller/Malone tete-a-tete is over, (or at intermission) Electronic Arts' hostile takeover of Take-Two Interactive in the world of gaming is getting ugly. Seems like the prey is taking a page from Yahoo!'s efforts to stave off Microsoft. Its winning strategy: The offer is "fair, but inadequate."

At Long Last: XM and Sirius!
Thirteen months is the longest the DoJ's ever spent investigating a merger. Now that's a done deal, FCC approval is expected lickety split. The Financial Times looks at why the deal isn't deemed an anti-trust violation. Fortune cheerleads Mel Karmazin's edict to raise satellite's ad revenues from 4% to 10%. Elsewhere in the land of music: FLUX. Clear Channel's buyout by Thomas H. Lee and Mitt's Bain Capital is given legal oomph, even as it told the SEC that the deal might collapse. Reaction to Warner's trial balloon for a $5/month "music surcharge" for ISP subscribers has been variously condemned as extortion and bemusedly supported as a way to move the music industry out of the Dark Ages. Of note: Rhapsody takes no offense to MySpace's JV (branded "Hulu for music") while Silicon Alley Insider wonders why they're spinning off their core business. BTW: Six months out, Amazon's DRM-music store is now #2 behind venerable iTunes.

Print Travels Coach, Online's Still Figuring It Out:
Out of Print, Eric Alterman's analysis of print journalism in last week's New Yorker, comes as newspapers reported the worst ad revenue drop in fifty years. While online ad sales grew 19%, its piece of the pie is still triffling. The Times reports that major pubs like USA Today and the Boston Globe (owned by the Times) can't afford to send reporters out on the political trail. Erick Schonfeld, who left Time Inc looks at his first six months as a TechCrunch blogger, while the Times amps up the rivalry between paidContent's Rafat Ali and TechCrunch's Michael Arrington. Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff cries foul as a commentor, opining that it's a false dichotomy. (So I don't have to.)

Video: Which Approach Wins the Day?
Hulu's looking good. According to Nielsen, in its last month of beta it got 1.7 million uniques. Where it really impressed was engagement: 55 minutes/month per average user, that's above MTVN, NBCU, ABC, and ESPN. NBCU had $100M reasons to celebrate its FX deal to broadcast its 2008 slate - but in 28-30 months. Mark Cuban, on the other hand, aired Flawless (unlike Bubble, solid ratings on Rotten Tomatoes) on HDNet two days before its theatrical release. Not everyone's happy about the Digital TV transition: the Community Broadcasters Association think the digital TV transition's a "death sentence" for the 2,600 low-powered stations, many of whom will find the cost to ditch analog prohibitive (WSJ subscription req'd). TechCrunch's Schonfeld earns his keep by offering this intriguing analysis: postulating the future of TV ad serving by marrying the best parts of blinx and Spot Runner. Jeff Zucker's gotten a lot of buzz over his video recapping My Name Is Earl. While LA Weekly's Nikke Finke has drawn up committment papers, our own Ed Martin finds it charmingly self-deprecating. Decide for yourself.

Tomorrow, Today
The Virtual Worlds Conference this coming April 3rd and 4th promises to be a fascinating gathering at the intersection of technology and media. Jack Myers will be on the panel Virtual Worlds By The Numbers: Today and The Futurethis Thursday and Jerry Weinstein will be stalking the Javits. To Infinity and Beyond!