As news organizations prepare to cover the looming U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, they are facing sharply higher insurance costs to cover reporters being sent to the Middle East and other political hot spots.Journalists employed by major U.S. media companies who…
If Electronic Media has meant anything in readers’ minds over the years, it’s meant Diane Mermigas. And this week marks the official kickoff of our new e-mail newsletter, Mermigas on Media.Diane started as a reporter who was our secret weapon;…
The voyeur fetish ravishing American TV audiences continues on virtually all the networks. Now ABC has added “Big Brother” producer Arnold Shapiro to its programming plate for an upcoming series and is said to be finalizing offers to renew its…
Just before 9 a.m. Eastern time on Feb. 1, when communications between Mission Control and the Columbia broke off mid-word, the routine suddenly was shattered for a small fraternity of television journalists who for years have immersed themselves in the…
Wassup in TV’s beer wars?It’s not just talking frogs and bikini babes in titillating 30-second spots anymore.Make way for the suds-selling “movie-mercial.”Anheuser-Busch, the Budweiser and Michelob brewer and distributor, has raised the bar with a new 71/2-minute short film “insert”…
As the nation has witnessed time and again, from the JFK assassination to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, television ascends to its highest purpose in times of tragedy. On Feb. 1, when the space shuttle Columbia exploded over Texas, television was…
A cynic, or a bitter media planner, might suggest that the reason so relatively little is written about Super Bowl advertising after the event is that too many clients and their agencies discover $2.1 million is too much to pay…
“Why is it like this?” asked Matthias Kremin of Germany’s WDR, who was attending his first National Association of Television Program Executives convention. I asked every buyer I met, “What do you think of the convention?” but Kremin’s words crystallized…
When is a ratings drop not a ratings drop?Just ask the folks at MTV who are now making the same argument about “The Osbournes” that E! Entertainment recently made for “The Anna Nicole Show,” namely that overall household ratings might…
CABNew York, Feb. 11. Info: Joleen Martin, 212-508-1214 or joleenm @cabletvadbureau.com.CABleConnects 2003San Antonio, Feb. 19-21. Info: 512-474-2082 or www.txcable.com.NAB 2003Las Vegas, April 5-10. Info: 800-342-2460 or www.nab.org/conventions.RTNDA@NABLas Vegas, April 7-9. Info: 202-467-5200, 800-80-RTNDA or www.rtnda.org. Sportel AsiaHong Kong, April 8-10….