I found and posted this video, because I saw a story on Good Morning America or Today this morning about it.  First, I just want to say that I’m not condoning the actions of either boy; however, the instant I saw the first frame of grainy video and saw the high point to completion I had to know the story.  I immediately stopped paying attention to daytime television long enough to find the clip on YouTube.

And that’s why I posted the video.  It took me a matter of 15 minutes to find the clip reposted (because YouTube doesn’t condone kids body slamming each other and wobbling off on battle weary spaghetti strings either) and discussed to completion from both sides.  This is exactly the story that I was going to be told in however long it was going to take to get to it through the mud of old school legacy journalism trying to add new school flavor.

The New York Times believes that putting up a pay wall to more exclusive and engrossing content is going to save their dwindling profit shares.  I’m not saying that it won’t.  I’m not saying I have a solution.  And I’m not saying that this model may not work for a publication like The New York Times.

I’m just saying that it sets a very bad precedent for smaller news organizations that might try the same thing and be sorely disappointed.  

(disclaimer: I’ve already gone on for a bit and I feel a longer rant coming on.  So if you are done reading thus far and would not like to hear a deconstructionist psychoanalytic reader response break down of my own news consumption: here is your way out.)

I guess that The New York Times believes that it’s content has amassed a reader base willing and able to afford a mobile subscription to it.  The Wall Street Journal has something similar and doesn’t have to worry, because it’s journalistic content caters to a readership just like the one I describe.

In my opinion where NYT and WSJ differ is that, though the younger end of the readers for the earlier is the crowd to aspire to afford such things like Iphones, Ipads, and other Idiosyncratic mobile devices as well as a subscription to such a well to do highly thought of publication as itself: we do not live in such an age that our own economic standing can reflect it.

And yes I’m talking about me.  There is no way I could possibly afford this that and the other thing.  On top of that, after struggling to build a career from almost nothing and being thwarted at every turn, including one into the previlaged eschelon of elite bards that put ink quill to papyrus for meager earnings for such media moguls.

No matter how well the economy may appear to begin doing; will we be any less hungry or cold.  And now along with that an avenue to alleviate Maslow’s last obstacles to actualization:  I will have to be bored, anxious and in need of entertainment, while I wait for the pay wall to fall.

That didn’t turn out exactly like I was thinking, but thanks for reading.

(While I wait for the White House to put up the video from President Barak OBama’s address over the situation in Libya, I figured I write a few of the posts I have outlined.-I know; lame disclaimer)

This video was posted on YouTube a couple of days ago and I can’t stop watching it.  Ray William Johnson posts the best analysis/review of videos akin to this on his channel.  He is hilarious and he’s been making vids forever.  His channel is the quintessential formula for shows like Tosh.O, The Soup, Web Soup, The Dish, etc.-All basically fleshing out the Ray William Johnson Vlog clip show with sketch comedy so it lasts 30 minutes instead of 5.

This brings me to my point that online media is having an ever increasing influence on legacy media and at times is interchangeable.  And although it is, was and always will be the cheapest most affective form of “do it yourself” promotion; the bigger and more inclusive the brand the harder it is to “do it yourself.”

If you leave it entirely up to your audience than you can loose momentum in booms of interest over controversy (that’s why everybody that was disgusted couldn’t stop talking about Jersey Shore).

Being marketabley socially savvy is the same thing as being an accountant accept you get to go to South by Southwest.  People take for granted that setting up and maintaining a social account takes a few clicks as though it were counting, adding and subtracting.

Metaphor aside the same goes for video.  It is just another tool for tweeps and Tube-heads (just made that up-don’t make fun of me).  Production value and the separation of technique and effectiveness is the issue.

Capturing a three day event for a 3 minute video on a splash page can cost a ridiculous some of money for a nonprofit or small startup.  I just encountered this problem with a freelance client.

The services of the studio I contract through versus a traditional production house was the difference of $40,000, which doesn’t mean a hell of a lot to the local affiliate of a large broadcast company, but can is the entire media production budget for some companies across print, broadcast and digital.  

Production costs are going to have to reflect the changing digital landscape, which is already being discussed on TechCruch and The Atlantic-but original content that “wows” you ain’t free.