MSNBC the TV channel might be "the Lohans," in the brutally funny formulation last week of Jon Stewart, but MSNBC the website is doing very well.
Here's the way MSNBC spun it:
"More consumers get their political news from msnbc.com than any other online site. One out of every four people surveyed who said they got their campaign news online named msnbc.com. Of the hundreds of sites users mentioned as sources for political news, msnbc.com was the only site to get over a 25% response."
That's something of a paradox, isn't it? The channel is melting down, but the website is going strong. And that's a reminder: technology is always the big driver in entertainment. And MSNBC has always had, deep in its DNA, not only Microsoft, but also General Electric--two companies that have always been more about technology than show business. Those non-showbiz origins might hurt MSNBC on the air, but they help online. And while it is still the case that probably 90% or more of a cable news network's profits come from TV as opposed to online, that's sure to change, as more and more action migrates to the web.
To put it another way, technology matters. In a country where more than half of people have broadband, where 80% or more of Americans have mobile devices, and where the phone/PDA is turning every handheld into a multimedia center, the old idea of "keeping up with the Joneses" has taken on a whole new techno-meaning.
Here's the bottom line: If people have cooler technology at home, on their computer screen (big or small), than they see on the TV screen in front of them--well, that's eventually going to cause a huge shift in media consumption patterns.
A look back at past techno-breakthroughs in entertainment underscores that point:
In the early days of movies, a century ago, you could make a bad movie--but you still had a movie. And to most audiences in 1908, it was more fun/affordable to go to a movie than to see a live stage show. The novelty of movies was a big selling point, and so was the fact that you were seeing new things, from around the world, not just the world of limelight and greasepaint. And the same techno-imperative, in latter decades, held true for radio and TV--it was something cool to behold. Even a bad radio or TV show was better than what was old.
As TCG has pointed out many times, The Cable Game is in the process of becoming The Convergence Game. MSNBC TV has been a steady third in the cable wars since Fox came along in October 1996, but MSNBC.com could be a whole different story.
