• by John Gaffney , July 22, 2002

All About The Benjamins: I promise you that Dennis FitzSimons, president and chief operating officer of the Tribune Co., makes more money than I do. Probably forgot about more money in his career than I’ve made. So line the two of us up to media business strategy, and make sure you bet on FitzSimons. Having said that, I need to take exception with something he told the money men over the weekend. FitzSimons was addressing a PriceWaterhouse executive forum when he said: “What gets to me is that every time the economy has a hiccup, some so-called experts wring their hands about the entire future of over-the-air broadcasting and print journalism. Local media are probably the most resilient of any ad-supported businesses, and they'll remain so in the 21st century. The reason is simple: because we serve our communities with the kind of localism that newspapers, radio and TV stations do best. That has real impact, which is certainly what our advertisers, our clients, need most in an era of fragmentation.” That may be right on paper, but it isn’t working out that way. That concerns me and it should concern anybody who works in the media business. FitzSimons is right when he says that the relevant issue is no longer convergence ad consolidation. The relevant issue is fragmentation, but local media haven’t been successful at aggregating the fragments. Newspapers should be able to focus local audiences, but by and large readership is off and ad revenue continues to be soft. What FitzSimons calls fragmentation seems to be hurting, not helping local media business. It also poses problems for media planners who need to follow the fragmented consumer. If I could help you solve that puzzle, I might be making more money than Price and Waterhouse put together. Throw in Coopers, too.

CelebExecs Revisited: There has been some talk of Mel Karmazin leaving his post at CBS, and that talk has often put Karmazin in the same paragraph as Pittman and Messier. That’s an injustice. If Karmazin leaves it will have nothing to do with lack of performance. Karmazin has held CBS and Viacom together after its merger, and he turned the new company into a solid media monolith. I haven’t heard any talk of breaking up CBS and Viacom. If Karmazin leaves it will be the result of personality conflicts with Sumner Redstone. Somebody else will take his talent in a heartbeat.

Something Good About WorldCom: I hear one of the first post-bankruptcy activities WorldBomb has been reaching out to its corporate clients. I like that. In fact, I like it anytime when the underdog goes to the hoop with its best effort. Maybe a corporate ad effort should follow. Cash with order, of course.