A Progressive Media Outlet

Yesterday I wrote about MSNBC’s current death spiral.

Today, I would like to propose a format for a Progressive Cable station also available with live streaming on the web. Using both outlets is critical, since more people are looking to cut the cable cord. Live streams are also critical since we are talking about news and current events. As the Rolling Stones sang many years ago “who wants yesterday’s news?”  On the other hand, some programming may be better suited to making it available for streaming over a long stretch of time. Thus a cross platform is necessary. That does not preclude a small $2 or $3 dollar per month subscription to the entire Progressive TV outlet’s catalog.

Content and name recognition is absolutely necessary to bring in the eyeballs and the ears initially. Also programming the Right Wing model where a blowhard talks and rants for an hour, brings in the same rotation of talking heads and reputed experts that tell the host how smart they are. This happens now on Fox, MSNBC and CNN. The people that want Progressive programming are not fooled by such inanity. That is why MSNBC’s ratings are tanking. That and each and every show covers the same two top stories every single night. For a number of years the Top 40 AM radio format was shaken up by Free Form, Album oriented FM radio. There some rules that every DJ had to follow, some of those rules can be brought over to Cable TV, to shake up the talking heads model.

Rule #1 – If the show before you covered scandal “A”, then don’t say anything more than coverage of scandal “A”  is available on the web and is also optimized for your cell phone. For the next two shows after scandal “A”, the host can spend 90 seconds outlining the main theme and then redirect people to the web to the earlier coverage.

Rule #2 – No single host can cover scandal “A” more than 2 nights in a row.

Rule #3  – Rules 1 and 2 can be overridden to introduce a new development, but only new information can be reported.

Rule #4 – No host has a regular shift. What? No Rachel every night at the same time? Yup. All evening programming should be ready for publication by 5 PM each evening and announced via push technology using social media, emails as well as 45 second blurbs on earlier shows. (These blurbs can be on radio and other tv outlets)  For example, Rachel can put together a 45 minute program one night where she explores an issue in depth, the next night she follows with a rebuttal or a an expansion or possibly responds to viewer questions live or prerecorded, but that program only take 30 minutes.

Rule #5, One host, each evening may choose to not do a program.  This means a stable of fill-ins or everyone does an extended show.  The era of time boxed programming is over.

The idea here is to create a dynamic set of programs that can explore issues with real experts, sometimes with follow up on the issues generated from one program into another. It does not have to repeat the same news stories over and over. Invite, but not require or expect viewer participation. Place material on the web that ties various parts of the same subject together. Allow hosts to live or die on their talents, and above all minimize repeating the same story.