Mark Ramsey laments how he has left the CBSnew.com Notebook podcast because of a 30-second erectile dysfunction ad spot.
So they took a 60 second segment that wasn't great or substantive to begin with and increased its length by 50% with a bad spot. Then they decided to do this every day with the same bad spot.
It's easy to roll our eyes, shake our head, and chuckle at the main stream media cluelessness that led to this, but even more interesting that Mark's post are some thoughts of a commenter. George writes:
One reality we all live with is the disconnect between sales and programming. The sales team is out selling the demo[graphic], not the format. So the news demo is older men. Thus the E.D. spot. They forget that Katie is not Dan Rather. She was hired to bring down the demo and appeal to women. But that's what happens when you sell the demo, and you don't watch what you sell.
I slapped my forehead and said "Of course!". George has it exactly right and while it's still an example of MSM cluelessness, at least it makes sense.
News is news is news and the sales team sells the spots based on the demographics for news. Assuming that George is right and Couric was brought on board to change the demographic, the sales team deserves a slap on the hand for not knowing this and trying to sell the target demographic. This is a good case study about what can happen when an oranization fails to achieve total buy in from all stakeholders.
So there you have it. Cluelessness with a cause.
