You can’t point to a single time on the Lost Remote blog where you EVER said something was not a good idea.

You also can’t give an example of a success from AR&D.

And dont go try selling us that WKRN stuff — that failed long before the San Francisco debacle.

Oh, wait, KTBS? Yeah, not a success story either. And how is that local ad network going? By the way, that is NOT a scalable idea… Google does it because of its reach and audience…. Are you telling me market 100+ is going to monitize something like this?

TV station websites can barely schedule their OWN ads correctly on their OWN sites… now you think they can run and manage an entire local network.

As they said in the wonderful last episode of Generation Kill (I’m paraphrasing): “The business end of Gumbert’s crack pipe must be hot to the f-ing touch.”

Oh, and that was a video presentation with no panning over still photos. I wonder how I managed to still watch it? Golly gee…

– 30 –

I rest my case…

rah, rah, rah!!!!

sales, sales, sales!!!!

if you’re the person on the other end having to deal with your inane ideas (and then implement them) you come to resent bad ideas — and those who constantly cheer them on (so as to look good)

when has your company ever done ANYthing that has worked? please.. tell me…

Look, your motive here is to sell something.

Otherwise you would have never compared a Ken Burns documentary to daily NEWS VIDEO.

It just smacks of a off-the-cuff remark that makes you look “smart” when in reality — when you really analyze it — makes no sense.

I know what you are up to. It’s to provide “feel good” comments that seem to support just about everything… and what does a GM want to see? Just that.

They don’t want reality from people who have actually done this — and seen it fail spectatularly.

I really just can’t believe that you are such a salesman that you would try to “smooth things over” by — again — using Ken Burns as an example of “what works”.

According to your logic I could find any snippit of video anywhere and say “well, it works” — not matter what it is.

Just keep posting and I’ll keep calling you out.

It’s nothing personal — I just HATE bad ideas and smarmy people who never seem to find anything wrong — because it helps their business.

When HAVE you EVER said “Gosh, this just is not a good idea — don’t do it”?

Never.

That is because your MO is just as I said above — all smiles and “go get ‘em” when in reality the ideas are actually bad.

Keep it up. Some GM somewhere who doesn’t know any better will buy…. you cast a thousand nets and eventually you will haul in some fool.

Good luck

I always enjoy your ad hominem attacks and your postings that do little to advance to discourse. It’s been months since you tried to slap me down with an obvious “he’s just trying to sell something” crack, and I was beginning to think you’d forgotten.

I like to think that, even as an evil consultant, I too have the right to publish my opinion on LR. The reason I left as a full-timer here was so that LR could maintain its neutrality. Although I knew I could post stories that wouldn’t conflict with my work, I also knew I would be faced with allegations of trying to fudge the news in my direction. I wouldn’t do that to LR. So I blog on my own, where it’s clear what I do for a living.

I’d like to know - and I hope you’ll come clean: why the anger? What have I done to you? I have a feeling an evening in a bar would resolve the grudge. And I’d buy.

I will continue to post my thoughts and opinions here. (Until Cory tells me otherwise.) Everyone knows what I do for a living. I have yet to post a sales pitch. I post, as I did for 7 years at LR, thoughts, ideas and opinions about our industry. Jim, I’ve earned a voice here and I’m willing to bet there are a few folks who will back that up.

I extend my offer: let’s exchange a real discussion, via phone, email or in person, so I can find out what it is that I have done to deserve these snide, hateful attacks. If I have earned them, give me the chance to right them. If I haven’t, please allow me the honor of providing my own defense. In either case, beer will play a role.

Do you accept? Email me at steviesaf@gmail.com.

I just cant believe some as “smart” as Safran would really try to sit here and tell us that shooting still photos as video is OK…

And compare a Ken Burns documentary to news video….

Just amazing…

did you recently leave wral and take a job at wdik?

The panning across still photos aspect DOES NOT work well.

Sure, the content for a slim, very deep piece of content for a documentary *might* work for PBS.

But, on a daily news cast? That is billed AS VIDEO?

First, there is a reason PBS exists. It is not in the position to get ratings and make real money…

So, if someone wants to copy that “video” style.. have fun… you won’t make dime one.

Trying to compare a 9 part Ken Burns documentary on (government subsizied PBS) to a daily news VIDEO cast is ridiculous Safran.

Plus, just look at the ratings of the recent Ken Burns attempts. Quite low…

If newspapers want to listen to you and shoot video of still photos — great. That makes it even easier for TV stations to win the battle of local news.

Go sell your stuff somewhere else… please

the answer is to marry strong newspaper journalism with the techniques of local news. A poor story teller kills the story.

Mike R. is hardly an icon. He has failed at every shop he has tried to convert.

Tvjersey.com is a lot cleaner (you have some skewed aspect ratios on some of your thumbs, which draws away from the overall impact of the design)… why no link to there from the blog? And why no Star-Ledger graphic? The Ledger has meaning to anyone who’s been paying attention… why not play that up?

As for bringing in the bloggers– that’s great, there’s a place for it. But I think the reporters and photographers you already have on staff should be featured, their work promoted.

Anyway– thanks for listening the feedback, with especially good humor. I’m rooting for you guys.