BIG IDEAS

Similar to the makeshift Barack Obama for President posters that inspired the design world in 2008, graphic artists are now taking on the Almighty Dollar.

Not that anybody asked them to of course. The government hasn’t put out any call for dramatic change. But if you’ve ever traveled overseas and wondered why our money is so ugly compared to others, this project may give you something to look forward to - maybe.

http://richardsmith.posterous.com/

THIS IS NOT GOOD.

Sure, it was kinda fun looking from the sidelines to see which so-so magazines have fallen by the wayside over the last months, but now it’s hitting too close to home when my very favorite disappears. Men’s Vogue was one thing, but BEST LIFE is a pill too bitter to swallow. It was easily the best men’s service magazine out there - with the possible exception of its big brother, Men’s Health.

READ MORE HERE

From the New York Daily News comes this news that Damon Dash, power mover, vodka broker and former Jay-Z business partner, probably should have squashed his beefs and stayed in business with Jay Z.

According to the paper, he’s fallen into “MC-Hammer-style” brokeness. A pretty amazing, though not completely surprising, turn of events.

Read the full article here.

For various reasons, likely some sense of what “cool” should look like, the entertainment business has developed a handful of people who have been able to parlay their decided lack of “hipness” and the ability to crossover diverse audiences without threat into mini-empires of Middle American mediocrity.Dick Clark is the reigning King of that, and Ryan Seacrest his ever-wealthier and ubiquitous student.

Quietly, there’s a Black counterpart - none other than Byron Allen. Yep, that Byron Allen. King of Hustle.
The one thing that Clark and Seacrest have had that Allen has not is the one huge breakout property that opened up the doors to investors. No American Idol, no American Bandstand, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve or American Music Awards. Which makes Allen’s hustle even more impressive. He’s made a good chunk of respectable change with the kind of sponsored branded entertainment shows that local TV stations rely on to fill scheduling holes. He’s effectively taken his ego out of the game and substituted being the famous guy in the room for being the rich guy in the room. Gotta respect a brother for that.

This week Allen’s company, Entertainment Studios announced a content and distribution partnership with MySpace that gives the popular social network access to thousands of hours of Allen-produced TV programming across ten content channels.

That’s right, coming to your computer very soon, scintillating hits like “Entertainers with Byron Allen,” “Beautiful Homes & Great Estates,” “Designers, Fashions and Runways,” “Urban Style,” “The American Athlete,” “Cars.tv,” “Latin Lifestyles,” “Recipe.tv,” and “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen.”

Laugh if you will. Byron is too - all the way to the bank.

Sorry, y’all, for not blogging as much as usual. Been on a whirlwind of projects and travel, the most recent trip being to New York City and the fabulous Frank Gehry-built, Barry Diller-funded, IAC building for the launch of the new Rushmoredrive.com website.

I’ll write more this week in my Media Mix column about the site itself, and - Monday’s New York Times has a pretty good piece about it - but the event was also interesting.

The event, held in the building stark white lobby provided a great backdrop for the site’s logo, which was projected all around the curved walls of IAC’s new digs, which reminds you somehwat of a big iPod that’s been run over by a truck. Which doesn’t sound like a good thing, but in the middle of a street with next to nothing around it, it’s a fascinating look.

It was a pretty impressive crowd of the the Negro Digerati who were attracted to the reception with the promise that IAC would be launching something compleley new and different - “But we can’t tell you what.” ESPN’s Keith Clinkscales, CNN pundit Roland Martin, BET.com’s Nick Charles, Ebony Group Publisher Kenard Gibbs and Creative Director Harriette Cole, Black Enterprise’s digital group and host of other media folk stopped through.

Rushmore Drive president and ceo, Johnny Taylor, opened up the event and pretty much signaled what was to be unveiled through his introductions of IAC employees who were instrumental in building the project - namely dozens of folk attached to IAC’s Ask.com search engine. Which pretty much confirmed the pre-event rumors that a “Black Google” was what IAC was planning.

Taylor then went into his launch pitch, billing the new site as a “Whole New World online” and then rolled out R&B, now gospel singer Regina Belle to sing a rendition of - what else? - “A Whole New World”. Cheesy, yes, but cheesy works at big corporate functions. But probably not a good thing to launch a compnay for Barry Diller and make him pay Disney for rights to a song.

The other half of the draw, Chairman Diller himself, then did the smart CEO thing, which was to admit his lack of authority in anything related to the African American audience, but expressed his faith in his team to do the right thing. He also answered the question that was on a lot of people’s minds about Johnny Taylor, which was “How did the guy from HR become the CEO of a web start-up.” Diller took pains to describe Taylor as an “entrepreneur in HR clothing.” A small gesture perhaps, but an important step in helping Taylor build partnerships with content providers who are hardcore longtime web heads. It also worked to quell the suspicion that Rushmore Drive is really a Diller brainchild with a black front office.

Agai, details on the site to come in a lengthier analysis, but you already know the drill - a search engine based on Ask.com technology re-jiggered (re-jigga’d?) to lift up cultural relevant results on searches that are not necessarily culturally relevant. The example used in the live demonstration was typing in the word “book” gets you a list of what every other search engine would send you but lifts the smattering of Black bookstores that still exists a little closer than they would be ordinarily. Buggy during the demo, but a solid idea if it works.

Swag Rating (** Two Stars): It’s all about the parting gifts in party world. In this case, guests received a Rushmore Drive-branded bottle of wine from black-owned Signature Wine Group (which I had to give to the hotel clerk since I could not take it on the plane), and a very nice laquered box with a pen, letter opener and magnifying glass (Get it? Search.) and a chocolate hood ornament from Buick. Always a good thing to have swag, if only as proof that a day trip to New York was actually to do business and not meet with high-priced hookers or take your mistress to the Days Inn.

As long as we’re doing inside baseball, might as well continue with last week’s uprootings at Washington.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI). Not that anyone really cares, but to the extent that The Washington Post and the New York Times tend to be bellwethers for the media industry it’s kinda interesting. More so if you factor in that WPNI is the parent company of The Root.

In a nutshell, WPNI’s CEO, Caroline Little, has resigned or, more accurately was resigned to the fact that her position would no longer be necessary in the company’s transition to the new “Washington Post Media”, which is led by Washington Post Chairman Don Graham’s niece, Katherine Weymouth. Washingtonpost.com was the last real holdout in the bid media web space in the rush to “integrate” its print and online functions.

Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen.

Here’s what good can come of it:

1. Caroline Little is out. A good dealmaker but less than a visionary. Even though the web is more than a decade old, it still requires visionaries to move it forward. It’s way too early in the game for bean counters and office politicians.

2. Because washingtonpost.com has been the chief breadwinner, Little’s style was to give substantially less resources and attention to serious growers like Slate and fewer marketing dollars behind  new offerings like the green site, Sprig, ReadExpress.com and The Root. If former WPNI VP Liddy Manson can be convinced to come back in the CEO gig, expect her to figure out how to leverage the smaller sites and for Slate and The Root to get much more visibility.

But here’s the bad:

1. With all that focus on integrating the web and print operations of The Post, The Root may (just like Sprig) get lost in the dust where resources are concerned.

2. Print folks just don’t get the web. Despite all the clamor to integrate over the years, washingtonpost.com was best when it was the most separate. You need freedom to promote creativity. A more newspaper-focused website will mean less innovation across all the WPNI sites, including The Root.

3. WPNI going corporate means even less ethnic diversity at the top. The new mixed entity creates a whole new layer of upper aristocracy from the paper, fundamentally lowering the profile of the (very) few minority folk in leading positions, such as new General Counsel Shereese Smith and editor Ju-Don Roberts.

Okay, no more media insider stuff, except for this next one on Rushmore Drive. Sorry.

Tons of Black media news last week - or relative tons for such a small space I guess. You probably know about Rushmoredrive.com -which I’ll get to in another post, and Tavis Smiley announcing his eventual departure from the Tom Joyner Morning Show. But straight on the heels of AdAge writing the dumbest and most misinformed article possible about Black media and ownership which took a smack at Black owmed media by noting that the popular Blackplanet.com is “owned by 5 Asians”, media conglomerate Radio One announced its purchase of Blackplanet.com (or more accurately, its parent company, Community Connect) for $38 million.

It’s a good play for Radio One and pretty much in keeping with their general method of growth through acquisition. From a strategic point of view, an existing community provides a fairly easy transition into serving as a foundation for the web presence of Radio One’s many radio stations across the country. Radio One will now basically be able to sell web advertising and geographically target those ads to the websites of the local stations. It also affords them some measure of TV One/Radio One/Black Planet sales integration.

A good look all around, as they say.

The only surprising and frankly kinda scary thing about this deal is the deal’s cost. Radio One got the most trafficked and oldest African American, Hispanic and Asian web communities (Omar Wasow launched Black Planet nearly a decade ago) for a relative paltry $38 million. Since deals like this are usually done at 3 times cashflow (though I have no numbers to confirm that this deal went like that), that would mean the company was worth about $10 million after 10 years.

Now somebody certainly made money on the deals, and certainly more than they started with. Still, BlackPlanet was Facebook before there was a Facebook, so why are we talking tens of millions and not hundreds? What it shows ultimately is that the African American (Asian and Hispanic as well)market is still sorely undervalued by both marketers and the people who loan the capital for such deals.

We can only hope that Radio One will smartly use this integrated platform with their sales power to lift the concept of the value of minority markets on the web.

Sorry if that’s all kinda inside baseball and much more about Black media than you wanted to know.

This whole pole dancing and college combination seems to be a running theme lately. Where was I when this was happening at Howard?

I guess this means one less “Where Are They Now” article they’ll have to do in JET.

Not everything’s funky with Black History Month where Black authors are concerned. There are a couple of real benefits. For example:

(1) If you’re lucky enough to get hooked up into the highly lucrative college and corporate lecture circuit as the result of your book, consider yourself a lock for speaking gigs in February. Every big and small college in America has Black History Month Lecture Series, and the going rate these days can be anywhere from $3,000 - $10,000 a pop for an author who is well known. Exponentially more if you’re a superstar. If  you plan it right and have a good agent, a full schedule of February speaking gigs can earn you a full year’s salary after taxes. That leaves the rest of the year to do what you love - write.

(2) Everyone knows that sales of books are very heavily influenced by the major Bestseller Lists - New York Times, Washington Post.  What you might not know is that those lists have very little to do with overall sales. Most of these lists track only a select list of major chain retailers - Wal-Mart, Borders, Waldenbooks, Barnes & Noble…

That dozen books you bought at the Afrocentric Negro Book, Yohimbe & Hair Care Center, your church social and Joe, the dreadlocked incense vendor at the flea market? Don’t count.

That doesn’t mean you should stop buying from those places. By all means, support them. The author gets the money no matter how it’s bought (though bulk sales sold outside of a retailer get the author a lower percentage of royalty).

What makes Black History Month good is this regard is that, by guaranteeing the shelf and window space at places like Borders, it increases the likelihood that Black authors will make those bestseller lists. That’s key. Publishers give a book about a month to catch fire before their attention flows to the next project, and the lists are a heavy part of their consideration for future promotion. Don’t make that list and forget the long book tour you dreamed about.

Ain’t the book business grand?

So here’s something something your probably don’t know - how the book industry and the whole money thing works and how Black History Month throws black authors off a bit.

The Basics:

When an author signs a book deal with a publisher, there’s about a 1.5 to 2-year wait before a book actually comes out. Publishers need to work that far ahead to schedule printers, negotiate shelf space, promote to booksellers and coordinate shipments. In some circumstances - when a publisher really, really wants to move it fast or the author has a completed manuscript at signing - that can move a bit faster.

Following so far? Let’s move ahead:

So let’s use this month as the hypothetical date that Author X signs a contract. Given the timing above, if Author X is white and delivers his or her book according to contract, that author can expect the book to come out Summer or Fall of 2009. If Author X is Black, however, nine times out of ten, said author should not expect a release until February 2010.

Why? Shelf space. Thousands of books come out each month and the only time Black authors can be guaranteed prominent window and display space in major bookstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble is to launch in that short Black History Month schedule when they will only compete with Valentine’s Day love junk. Otherwise a company has to pay for that space, which cuts into their marketing budget and the author’s future profits.

Still with me? Now here’s where that gets really funky:

When you sign a book deal, presumably you get an advance. It is not a fee or a profit. Fundamentally, an advance is a no-interest loan to the author in expectation of profit. Why a loan? Because the costs for marketing, printing, travel and other pre-publishing costs counts against your advance. So let’s say Author X gets a $100,000 advance. If the author sells enough books for $100,000 “profit” after release, and the costs for marketing, printing etc were $98,000 — Author X’s first royalty check will be: $2000.

Understood? OK.

The problem is the timing. The industry pays authors only twice per year - April and October. April’s check is for books sold from July - December of the previous year. October’s check is for sales from January - June of the current year.

So let’s get back to our hypothetical Black Author X and what this means. His/her book comes out in February 2010. By getting pushed to February instead of Fall 2009, this scheduling means Author X will not receive a royalty statement until October 2010, because there were no sales in ‘09, which means of course, no check in April. And since production and marketing costs almost always exceed the first six months of revenue, that royalty statement is, more times than not, just a statement - of how much you still owe the publishing company on their investment.

So realistically, assuming Author X sells a great deal of books, he or she won’t see a royalty on a book deal signed in February 2008 until April 2011. Nearly three and a half years after the fact. With the Black History Month element, that’s a full year or so later than other authors.

Of course, the caveat to all this is that, frankly, the vast majority of authors never get a royalty check - ever. At least not of any substance. For most people, the advance is all the money they will ever see from that source. Money’s really made on lectures, rights and other ancillary income that you can squeeze out of the notoriety you hope to get by being published.

But there’s another side to this Black History book thing. See the next post…