Are we watching the death of the legacy media? These media companies are losing money by the bushelful. It’s unsustainable — as Stephen Colbert just learned. His show was reportedly losing $40 million per year. That’s an insane amount of money to lose on a single stand-up comedy/talk show. He reportedly had 200 people working on his staff. How does that compare to other evening shows in the comedy/talk space? Well, Greg Gutfeld’s evening comedy/talk show has… 12, including 2 cameramen. That’s right. Just twelve people work behind the scenes to put a far superior product on the screen. One that makes ratings and money. (And can actually make you laugh!)
Nobody’s watching the networks anymore. ABC World News Tonight had just over 7 million viewers recently — and they’re the big dog among the broadcast network news. Seven million?? In a country of over 160 million adults? Like I said… nobody’s watching. Even cable news networks are suffering. Fox, which big-foots every other cable network out there by many multiples, “averaged 1.63 million viewers for the full broadcast day and 2.63 million in primetime for the quarter.”
What will happen to them if Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. pulls Big Pharma from their advertising budget? It will be nothing short of catastrophic, which I’m sure breaks your heart as it does mine: “Pharma ads accounted for nearly 25% of advertising minutes through May 2025 for all Major cable and broadcast networks (NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fox News).”
And what of NPR/PBS? Evidently NPR got 1–2% of its revenue from the federal government, but PBS’s share was 10–15%. That’s a lot of tote bags. Of course, nobody is talking about making any cuts at the big glamorous headquarters of either network. All the talk is about the “locals” and the local programming which will have to be cut. Can’t have the swells suffer any downsizing. Oh no. Save it for the lesser lights out in farm country. They’re used to hardship….
And The Washington Post? Good gravy. They lost $100 million last year. I know Jeff Bezos, the third richest man in the world, owns the thing, but you start talking hundreds of millions of dollars and pretty soon we’re talking real money. Colbert evidently held on through a few cycles of gargantuan losses before the pulled the plug on him and the entire enterprise. How long can The Washington Post possibly hold on before Mrs. Plastic Fantastic whispers in Jeff’s ear that it’s cutting into her corset and diamonds budget?
Impossible to predict the future with any sort of accuracy, but I know this: I wouldn’t take a bet on any of them surviving in their current form.
Image from Grok.