Taylor Swift and Beyoncé caused a cultural paradigm shift that now warrants full time, dedicated reporters. This is what a sea change looks like. Game on.
Digital First Darlings
I predict that “Digital First” is going to be one of the biggest employment catch phrases over the next year and hopefully some of those affected by the entertainment strikes can quickly pivot to get on that train. Last month’s news that streamers have officially surpassed traditional broadcast and cable networks in viewership was no surprise to me, but definitely a red alert that largely affects the sea change in entertainment.
Traditional media has been body slammed and pinned to the mat. The ref finally called it.
Traditional media is flexing to make big moves. News broke yesterday, as Taylor Swift was sweeping the VMAs, that she would be getting her own reporter! If you’re new here, I talked about the significance of this year’s VMAs marking the first time that the Artist of the Year category had only female nominees for the first time in history.
USA Today’s The Tennessean is officially seeking a dedicated Taylor Swift reporter and a Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reporter is said to be next, but I haven’t been able to confirm an actual ad for the latter and Taylor’s is below.
Video cover letter? Hmm. How does one pay a reporter *hourly? Serious question. Every minute I’m not writing, I’m researching and/or shooting everything in my path and have over 100,000 images and a stash of drafts to back that up.
It seems off to me that someone covering the biggest pop culture talent in the world could make less than some grocery delivery drivers?
Also, if you were such an expert on Taylor, couldn’t you make more writing your own all things Swift newsletter on Substack? (Some Substack journalists make a very healthy six figures here, with some majors surpassing seven or eight figures).
All things considered, I can’t wait to see who lands the job/s, to give them a read.
For producer types who want to shift to journalism - did you know that ROLLING STONE x NYU offers a Modern Journalism Program for $999? Not an ad and I have not done a deep dive on their courses or whether it has street cred.
VMA News
We all knew she’d win, right? It’s her moment. Here’s a link to my previous story [or click below] and Deadline’s complete winner’s list.
MTV realizes that the kids don’t sub to cable much these days and did a convenient compilation of all the acceptance speeches! Genius.
Filed Under Milestones
Just last month, Swift became the first female artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify and is just about to reach 101 million, says my Spotify page. (The Weeknd was the first male artist to reach that number).
In somewhat related news, and a hat tip to traditional media, I just changed my page layout to newspaper format and think I like it.