Chopping Up Truth In Media Since 2009
… Ben Silverman doesn’t. He really thinks he gets it but we know he doesn’t – and I seriously doubt Mob Wives will get him to the Promise Land of creating a next generation media business model.
But LEO LAPORTE (founder and chief guru of twit.tv – or This Week In Technology) GETS IT!
Please watch this 40 minute speech (which I previously posted in October 2009 – but I think deserves a second look) he gave to the Online News Association and you’ll see what I mean.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
Yes, this deal is as DumbDumb as you can get.
How to build a successful startup: Step #1 – Use Barry Diller’s money to fund a vanity production label with a friend from high school.
Yes, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett (in particular) are talented guys but anyone who thinks they will spend any real time on this venture is out of their minds.
Sure, we’ll get the standard Will Ferrell-type Funny of Die videos of Bateman and Arnett walking around with a steady-cam eating Doritos and improvising about how easy this internet stuff is – but will anything of value come out of DumbDumb?
Ben Silverman knows the answer to this and laughs at how DumbDumb some people must be.
I would imagine Barry Diller also knows the answer. Unfortunately, he’s the ultimate DumbDumb in this equation for funding Electus in the first place.
But for now… it’s all just so exciting. I know I’m just a cockeyed optimist, but I just can’t wait for Ben to change the world again. And I’m super glad that they took the time out of the arduous process of building the successful DumbDumb business model to appear in Las Vegas for the announcement (along with the awesomely hilarious Notional CEO Lord Ricky Van Veen).
I just hope it’s not the same business model that Ben Silverman developed for Electus: Spend $100 million on the development (but not the execution) of digital content and when that money is gone – launch another start-up with another sugar daddy.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
The revolution is over… and what a crappy revolution it was.
Notional – the only company to ever come up with the idea for a dating show in a taxi; a competitive cooking show; a home makeover show; as well as several shitty internet game shows in development including “Ready, Set, Dance”, “You vs. America” and “Chase the Money” – is dead.
Yes, I realize Notional hasn’t got up on its feet yet – but, based on the announcement of the “slate” today, Notional IS creatively dead. Physically, they’re still on life support and won’t be dead until 2011 or so (thus the tombstone – thanks, R).
Oh, well. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what content visionary (and current Notional CEO) Ricky Van Veen will think up next. Hopefully something that will have the same forward-thinking press release that mentions words like “revolutionary” and “ground-breaking.”
I must apologize to Barry Diller and all IAC shareholders for killing off his two latest content creation ventures before they really got started – (I killed Ben Silverman’s cure for what has been a cancer of bad content and business models on the internet, Electus, a couple of weeks ago… also before the launch) – but it had to be done.
Come on, Ricky, freakin’ internet game shows? Who gives a shit? You were so clever until you started spending Barry Diller’s money. What does he get for making you rich? You… trying to make him poor.
The only show you could produce that could possibly work is you and your new best friend Ben Silverman going out every night and partying your brains out then putting your escapades up on the internet for everyone to see. You could actually erect the elusive paywall on that one. Just imagine it… you, Ben and hot chicks in bars… X-rated.
THAT is programming only you guys can do in just the right pathetic way. And THAT is your only competitive advantage.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
I realize that Electus – the earth-shattering, ground-breaking, cutting-edge new business from Ben Silverman and Barry Diller’s IAC/ InterActiveCorp hasn’t launched, but I have recently climbed aboard Khan Manka, Jr.’s Time Machine and gone into the not-too-distant future to retrieve the press release announcing (sadly) the company’s closure. Sorry, Ben.
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From the Associated Press (July 2011):
Electus, the $100 million start-up from media wunderkind Ben Silverman has decided to close its doors effective immediately after only 18 months in business. 875 staffers (mostly low-level hot chicks in their 20s who ran errands and stuff) were expected to lose their jobs. The highly-touted venture only managed to produce one original internet series – a show about bed-hopping young flight attendants based at O’Hare International Airport called “The Hub”.
Electus, announced by Mr. Silverman with much fanfare in July 2009 (after a completely disastrous run as Co-Chairman of NBC Entertainment), was supposed to change the entertainment landscape with the unoriginal idea of marrying advertising, content and distribution in a new media world.
Mr. Silverman was unavailable for comment but released a statement through his representatives: “I am proud of my accomplishments at Electus. Even though $100 million doesn’t go as far as it used to, I still changed the world! No one has even come close to doing what I did because nobody had the balls. What a ride! Maybe people just aren’t ready for forward-thinking.”
Mr. Diller was available for comment and simply said about Silverman: “Fuck that guy.”
But don’t worry about Ben. He has landed on his feet and will continue his Quixotic quest to monetize online content from his penthouse suite at The Palms Hotel in Vegas. Goldman Sachs
has committed $500 million to fund his new, as yet, unnamed venture.
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Oh, yeah, one other thing I learned from the future: The Jay Leno Show was canceled in 2010 and called one of the greatest failures in the history of television. Sorry, Ben.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
Seriously, Fortune? Are you fucking kidding me? What, will you sell 15 more magazines with him on the list? Couldn’t come up with that 40th name?
What about Jeff Weiner – he’s under 40 and was named CEO of LinkedIn. That’s a pretty big job and the site actually makes money and is relevant.
Ben Silverman is irrelevant. Everyone needs to please stop with the ‘Ben Silverman is great’ shit.
If (and this is about the biggest fucking ‘if’ I’ve ever written) Barry Diller and Ben Silverman put together a company that changes the media landscape and makes the world a better place, put him on your list next year. Oh, yeah, he won’t be UNDER 40 next year. Sorry, Ben.
Well, OnMedea is putting together our own list: ONMEDEA’S TOP 40 FAILURES UNDER 40 and Ben Silverman is in the running for the top of that list.
Check back here next week for all the exciting details.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
OK, Ben.
It’s been nearly three months since you announced you were leaving NBC to start a new company that will “capitalize on the ever-evolving world of multimedia production and distribution.” We’re still waiting.
Who knows? Maybe you actually did stay at NBC to help launch the new season (or whatever) like you claimed you were going to do.
If you stayed, most likely you left the morning after The Jay Leno Show premiered so that you could tell people that it was a hit while you were there.
[Note: Latest ratings for The Jay Leno Show (10/5/09): 2.9/5 – but, according to John Ferriter, it only needs a 1.5 to make NBC Universal $300 million!]
I know it must be difficult to be a cutting-edge wunderkind and I’m not trying to rush you – but it’s time to announce your new venture.
I’m sure Barry Diller can’t wait to hear about it either. He’s got $100 million riding on your genius.
Don’t worry, Ben – Vegas will still be there after you launch your company. And… don’t forget… hot chicks dig launch parties.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
The cover of Sarah Palin’s latest work of fiction “Going Rogue: An American Life” was released today by publisher HarperCollins.
Anyone waiting to see if Ms. Palin can write in complete sentences WON’T be able to find that out anytime soon because she didn’t really write the book. Most likely she talked into a speaker phone from her Chevy Suburban to Ghost Writer Lynn Vincent who turned Ms. Palin’s incoherent thoughts into a simple, easy-to-understand prose that will further separate the growing division in America.
What do we know about Lynn Vincent? Not much lately. I have a feeling Ms. Vincent has been locked in Dick Cheney’s bunker and will remain there until “Going Rogue: An American Life” is safely in the $1 bins at Costco (or when Ms. Palin becomes President – whichever comes first).
What we DO know about Lynn Vincent (46) OFF-THE-RECORD is that she is a total Christian Right wacko with hardcore beliefs about abortion, gay marriage, Jews, Democrats, Muslims, etc. In general, she’s a woman with a deep hatred in her heart for all those who are not like her.
ON THE RECORD, she’s a fairly solid writer who (I’m sure) has gay and Muslim friends. OK, maybe gay friends. OK, in the closet gay friends. OK, maybe not.
Over the next few weeks (until the book is released in November), there will be numerous attempts by the “Illegal-should-be-abolished” media on the left to dig up more about Ms. Vincent. But I have a feeling she will be “unavailable for comment” (though Fox News may be able to land an “Exclusive”. Hannity will be “tough but fair” and manage to wring out what her favorite flavor of Jell-o is).
As tempting as it is to go after whatever low-hanging fruit there is on Ms. Vincent, I say the real focus should remain on Ms. Palin – who, frankly, must be stopped.
Somewhere buried in the digital universe there is further proof that she is completely out of her mind and… dangerous. For the good of the world, it is our duty to dig it up before she writes again.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
P.S. – Sarah, you should have gone more “Coulter” with your cover. The men want to see you in a black mini-dress (especially Sean Hannity and his repressed sexual urges).