TVNewser NAB blogger Scott Baker sums up the convention in a Wednesday night blog entry:
The Book starts Thursday.
RTNDA ends Wednesday.
That’s a little tight. I’m not sure who thought this was a good
idea. I’m sure the date was scheduled years before Nielsen got around
to setting the book dates for this year.
In any case this led to an earlier than usual mini-exodus today.
Got to get back in time to broadcast.
So what have we learned?
Dan Rather feels moderately positive about Katie Couric. Very
moderately.
Shepard Smith is an adept walk-and-text messager.
Regis is happy to be in the Broadcasting Hall of Fame, but says he
still doesn’t know what his talent is.
Jack Valenti has the First Amendment memorized.
Dan Rather cries easily. But we all knew that.
Tom Brokaw is less prone to crying.
There were college student job seekers who looked older than FCC
Chairman Kevin Martin.
Don’t leave Shep out of the Katrina video montage.
The Hispanic audience is increasing faster than gas prices.
Charlie Gibson has a future.
Citizen Journalism is User-Generated Content, but not all User-
Generated Content is Citizen Journalism.
Video On-Demand will continue to explode and be really cool. Except
for when it doesn’t play, you just get audio — or it crashes your
browser.
The CNN party took off when the Neville Brothers hit their groove.
But the dance band that began the night should really not have
expected news directors to dance with each other. Or college student
job seekers.
Don Fitzpatrick will be missed.
There will be people who complain about RTNDA like people who
complain about Saturday Night Live — “It used to be better.” But
the truth is, it is what you make it. On any given day there you may
encounter the particular insight, person or technology that will make
all the difference. We had those in abundance.
See you next year.
NAB/RTNDA: Scott’s Closing Thoughts
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