Do we have to keep up with the Kardashians? Well, yes, actually.

Viral on YouTube right now is a video of Orlando television anchor John Brown walking off the set because it’s Friday and he’s happy and he does not want to talk about the latest Kardashian news.

Specifically he does not want to talk about the fact that Kylie Jenner bought a new, cute fluffy rabbit and named the rabbit “Bruce” – her father’s name before undergoing sex reassignment and becoming Caitlyn Jenner.

 

You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kODnzx694PQ

It’s interesting timing as I just had a conversation with my older son about the magazine selection at the checkout at Walmart – Kardashians, Jennifer Aniston, Fashion, Sex, etc dominate the magazine covers. And, as a host of a pop-radio morning show for 18 years I dealt in this area day after day. 

John Brown is wrong. 

People do care about the Kardashians. Media companies are in the business of making money. Audience is king because advertising is everything. The number one complaint in my radio career was “you play too many commercials.” As I explained to many school students – there have to be commercials or there is no radio and I don’t have a job. The whole point of media I to balance audience against advertising. A big enough or specialized enough audience to attract advertisers and few enough advertisements that you do not lose your audience. 

There is obviously a HUGE audience for pop culture gossip, etc. And, the idea that the media creates this demand is, I think, flawed. It’s supply and demand theory at work. There is demand for pop culture. The media companies supply it. Those that can’t, perish.

Hard news still has a place. It still has an audience. Compare the advertisers in the Globe and Mail to the advertisers in People magazine. Want to know who the audience is, look at the advertisers. I once co-owned and edited Canadian Poker Player Magazine. Almost every add in CPP featured a woman in a bikini. What did that have to do with poker? Um… nothing. What did it have to do with our audience? Everything. Poker players are men. Almost exclusively.

I think that poor John Brown has been caught up in the changing nature of news. I am guessing that he got into the field because his interest was “hard news.” And, that’s probably what he did for most of his career. But, as things evolved he has now found himself on a local television morning show which has a broad audience. The section he walked out of was a pop culture section (the woman on the right is a local pop radio host). 

Welcome to the new reality John. We call got caught in this web.