KBTV::The Staff
It had become painfully apparent that I needed a staff. Perhaps because I had been born out of “traditional media” and the whole idea of working alone was completely foreign, or maybe it was pretty simple: I was simply no longer 25 years old. One thing was clear, for KBTV to be successful, I knew I needed to hire a team – and I needed it now.
Shoot. I’d forgotten the once romantic ideal of the start-up shoestring budget! Wait, that fact had seemed so romantic at the time! Now, it was a reality. I called my mom. She always knows what to do.
“Kate, just head over to one of the local colleges, and go see someone in the education department. Tell them you need some interns,” my mother spent her entire career in academia, retiring as the Dean of the Parallel Program at the University of Delaware.
“Just show them your resume. They’re not picky.”
She sounded convinced. I, however, was not. But I was motivated by how empty and depleted I felt -- not only for ideas, expertise, and energy, but for camaraderie. I was lonely. I had moved to Florida on a dime, and I knew no one.
Braced with the inspiration that fine journalism is inherently collaborative, I set out one morning in January – clutching an armful of fliers – and headed over to the Boca Raton campus of Florida Atlantic University. It was that scene at the end of the cult 70s film “Logan’s Run” – a ghost town after the apocalypse. Classes had not yet come back into session after the Holiday break.
Out of desperation, I stopped a professor who turned out to teach in the Theater Department. He pointed me in the direction of the Communications Department to go see Susan Reilly, head of the School of Multimedia Journalism. I was lucky, I was later told, that she happened to be in. I climbed up to the second floor, rounded the corner and stepped into her office. There, in a neat pile on her desk, was my resume, a pile of clips I’d authored and my book, “Trump: The Art of the Comeback.”
“You’re Kate Bohner!” She eeked out in a little shriek – stringy, long graying hair flying behind her as she stood up. “I was just about to call you!”
Sometime in September, at the behest of my mother, I had sent this woman, Reilly, my CV, clips and book seeking a position as an adjunct professor.
This morning she seemed pleasantly surprised to see me. She offered me a seat and we talked for more than an hour. I left her office with the promise of a summer position, teaching a class called “The Evolution of Journalism,” which would be a joint appointment with the Business School. I also walked out fortified with two names: Rachael Joyner and Jason Parsley. Both, she assured me, were the absolute stars of FAU. According to Reilly, the two graduating seniors had transformed the school newspaper from a ho-hum sheet to a multimedia “experience.” She called and left messages for them from her office before I left. By the time I’d arrived home they’d both called me back.
The following day, they were perched on my couch. Seven days after that, we were eating pizza on the floor of my town house in our first “Staff Meeting.” Rachael and Jason would be KBTV Segment Producers, and I, the anchor and Creator. Four weeks later I met their friend and colleague at the University Press, Andi Galpern, and after seeing her amazing work signed her up as Creative Director.
God works in mysterious ways. Looking back on that time when we first began – and we were all getting know each other’s strengths weaknesses and idiosyncrasies, I am very grateful. I feel like I’ve got the greatest staff in the world.
Yet there was still something missing. Writers…check. Creative director…check. Talent/anchor…check. Hmmm, what else was missing from this video blog equation?
Yes, of course, someone to actually shoot KBTV. I knew it, and so did everyone else. We needed a pro – someone who could shoot, edit, field produce, drop graphics and deal with weird perfectionism. But what pro would be crazy enough to jump on a video blog put out on YouTube by a staff of college students and former TV personality turned Trump book author?
I went to the only place you can when you have no idea where to find what you’re looking for…the web.
To be continued …
KBTV::The Equipment
Looking back, for reasons I now cannot fathom, I must have felt I'd actually (successfully!) completed the project -- simply by sending out the proposal. Like ... Whew! That whole KBTV video blogging deal was super fun! Now what?
Of course that wasn't true, and nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. To tell you the response was overwhelmingly positive would sound like I’m bragging -- or trying to impress. I’m not. It's embarrasing, in fact. You see, hmm ... I'm not sure how to put this ... I come from the world of what everyone now calls “traditional media": Four-hour editorial meetings -- once a week, endless five-part series that run, say, on Tuesdays, 35-inch newspapers columns, giant sluggy, glossy magazines, and the daily churn and burn of netowork television. During my tenure as a correspondent at CNBC, I think we might have even still used generators when shooting on location.
Even today, the old world of publishing creeps along in a quiet, polite crawl. An example my agent likes to use is the avalanche of communication needed just to schedule a lunch -- not even eat it -- to just "put it on the calendar." After weeks of trying to get a particular editor or publisher on the telephone, an agent will suggest that he or she send an e-mail with possible dates when the two can meet for lunch, sometime in the next few weeks -- instead of simply picking a date, at that moment, on the telephone.
At the time, I didn't equate "someone loving the proposal" to me actually having to go to work.
Hence, the pain and fear that emanated to my temples upon receiving the e-mail below:
Here’s a simple thing to get started: a new macintosh + a lapel microphone + HD mini camera on a tripod…capture the image and sound in a quicktime movie. This movie can simply be uploaded onto a video site like YouTube. The iMovie tools that come with a Mac allow you to add a soundtrack of some type. Voila...you are done. The movie can also be put on your website etc.
There are many more sophisticated tools you can use (for example, Finalcut Pro is the movie editing suite) and there are a lot of tools on YouTube for more customization; etc. It's worth doing a simple experiment to try this (i.e. a one-minute movie of be beach or the town).
Streaming live video is much more complicated and not really necessary; if you want to do it you need a dedicated server and lots of bandwidth to do it right…Ten days later, equipment started arriving at my home (everyday!) in Deerfield Beach, Florida. And it kept coming: an HDR-HC3 HDV 1080i, a VMC-30VC High Grade Handycam® Component Video Cable ACC-FP71, a Camcorder Starter Kit, a NP-FP90 InfoLithium® P Series Rechargeable Battery Pack, a AC-VQP10 InfoLithium® P Series AC Adaptor and Dual Battery Charger, a VCL-HG0730X 30mm 0.7X High Grade Wide Angle Conversion Lens, a HVL-HL1 3 Watt Video Light and a VCT-1500L Tripod.
The DHL delivery guy (Jose) went from being a complete stranger to the "Man in a Uniform" walking into my house unannounced, plunking down a package and requesting a diet coke. Jose and I became fast friends -- one of the few I had in Florida.
By Dec. 18, three weeks after I had sent out the proposal, I was standing on an oh-so-WINDY beach wearing a lavender wrap-around, miniskirt paried with a purple Diane Von Fustenburg top, spurting out content about God knows what -- written only moments before. After some rough edits using iMovie...Voila!...I unvieled the first
episode of KBTV to a mixture of mixed, solicited reviews. The following day, I decided to uptick the quality of the content. I migrated from local crime to a slightly controversial book by a Harvard-educated psychiatrist that had ruffled the feathers of some of Manhattan's intelligentsia. Oh, and I wore black.
Over the next few weeks, the reviews got better, although one annoying mentor of sorts kept using the word "progress." I hate that word. I hate that concept! What is progress anyway?
It wasn't for another few weeks, when I found myself being shot by an ESPN intern behind a rustic mildewy church, that I comnpletely hit the wall.
To be continued ...
KBTV::The Proposal
There are moments, say at 4 a.m. and the KBTV episode du jour is uploading to YouTube at a 14 kbps dribble, I half close my eyes and I dig deep in what always feels like a last-ditch attempt to feel the passion I felt on that gloomy Sunday after reading the fateful e-mail in italics below. The elation! The glee! The hunger for a new adventure! I search for the passion but usually end up eeking out a little whimper. I look at the clock and wonder: How did this all happen? I mean, really happen? Why in God's name did I pursue it after that initial high faded, which it inevitably does?
The Proposal. That's right...I had decided to write a proposal.
Six days later, I e-mailed what turned out to be a four-page outline of what I -- at the time -- imagined would be "The KBTV Concept."
Hence ...
The Proposal"People worry that newspapers are going out of business. So what? It's the content that's important. No one gives a s**t about the delivery mechanism. Think about mail. You had the pony express, truck delivery, airmail, email. You don't care how it gets to you. I read more now than I ever did, but I get it off my PC. I don't need to go down to the end of the driveway and pick up the newspaper. It's the content that's most important." – Bill Watkins, Chief Executive, Seagate Technology, for CNN.com.
This mercurial, salty mouthed Texan CEO nailed it. The cliché “content is king” has never been more spot on than today. No one needs statistics to know that more and more people are looking to the ‘net when it comes to getting their news, listening to music, watching movies, and networking with friends and family. We live in a world where people download Avril Lavigne’s “Keeping Hold On” song and video off iTunes while checking in on their old college roommate on MySpace before snagging the day’s headlines off the Drudge Report.
The days of the sluggish, bureaucratic media outfits serving up stale information and redundant analysis are giving way to the nimble and quick, constantly evolving blogosphere. In a world where information is organized and available at your fingertips, the thought of sifting through a newspaper or waiting for the 11 o’clock news seems ludicrous. Today independently produced and distributed blogs like Daily Kos and Gawker have a viewership that rivals traditional papers such as The Boston Globe and The New York Post. Concept: “Kate’s Take” on KBTV is a three-minute daily videoblog based and shot in South Florida’s Gold Coast. Beginning January 15, 2007, we will cover a wide range of information from top news stories to quirky pop culture, finance and style. We will release each new clip at 1 pm ET, Monday through Friday.
“Kate’s Take” will differ from a regular TV program dramatically. Instead of costing millions of dollars to produce, KBTV is created with a video camera, laptop, one light and a stick mike. And because KBTV is distributed online, all around the world and on demand, it has a much larger potential audience than any TV broadcast. We spend $0 on promotion, relying entirely on word-of-mouth and close to nothing on distribution because bandwidth costs and space are so inexpensive. Consumers today want selection on their own terms. We live in a world of instant messaging and iPods, a world where TIVO has become a verb. With network news, a random producer sits in the control room of some studio deciding what does and does not air. But on the Internet, viewers choose what he or she wishes to watch, and therein lies the power shift. On the Web, we watch what we want to watch! Distribution: KBTV will utilize YouTube! as its primary means of distributing content. YouTube! has taken the ‘net by storm over the past year, accounting for 60 percent of all videos watched online. According to Nielsen NetRatings, YouTube! has roughly 20 million unique users per month.
Premium content will be available via KBTVOnline.com, free of charge. At KBTVOnline.com, users will be able to access the complete KBTV archive in addition to scripts, written articles, links, and merchandise.
We also hope to distribute KBTV video content via iTunes podcast service. Users will be able to automatically download our content daily and store copies of it along with their favorite music, television shows, and movies. The 1 PM Hit Rationale: “Kate’s Take” on KBTV will launch each weekday at 1 PM to avoid the morning “information bottleneck” and take advantage of the midday lull.
People typically tap into their PCs at home in the morning where they’re hit with the ton of emails that came in overnight:
Spam, horoscopes, weather, (any fluff stuff you sign up for)
Trading Information (research reports, market updates, news alerts)
Personal emails (from night-owl friends, picture attachments, etc.).
They delete the unwanteds, mark ones to be read later, and fire back only what is necessary.
Some folks read the newspaper, watch the Today Show or CNBC while rushing against the clock to get out the door.
Where ever they end up they spend the next few hours digging out, dousing fires and plotting strategies for the day. Then they eat lunch – either out or at their desks.
“Kate’s Take” will hit at 1PM to entertain and inform people during that all-to-familiar lull between 1PM and 3PM. And as the afternoon creeps by, KBTV will capture the word-of-mouth buzz from friends and colleagues making plans for the evening. Competitive Analysis: Old-time media bastions are crumbling and giving way to a new construction of consumer-driven content. Technology like YouTube! not only allows but encourages individuals to “broadcast yourself” for the first time. The content that is being independently produced and distributed is as diverse as the people who access it. On any given day, anyone can pull up YouTube! and catch the latest installment of “Chad Vader,” or check in on the latest update from the aspiring actress/staff accountant featured in “Lucy in the City.” Case in point: Rocketboom attracts an audience of 300,000 every day. CNBC’s highly touted “Kudlow & Company,” on the other hand, draws an average of just 265,000 daily viewers.
As people trend away from the rigid structure of the old media establishments and begin to gravitate toward user-produced content, the issues of quality and reliability become more apparent. For the trend we’ve witnessed over the past two years to continue to grow with staying power, a new class of “independent professional content providers” has to emerge, hence “Kate’s Take” on KBTV. Talent: Kate Bohner In 1988, after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, where she co-captained the women’s lacrosse team, Ms. Bohner took an analyst position at the international investment bank Lazard Frères & Co. in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group. For the next two years, she worked as a Junior Associate in both the New York and the London office.
Leaving banking in 1992 to pursue a writing career, Ms. Bohner was awarded the Reader’s Digest Literary Foundation Fellowship to study journalism at Columbia University. Upon graduation in 1993, she joined Forbes Magazine as a fact checker. After writing for the Small Business, Investigative, Healthcare and other sections, Ms. Bohner was promoted and asked to reinvent the column “The Informer,” rising to Associate Editor. She has also written for other various publications including Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, and George Magazine.
In 1996, Ms. Bohner was contracted to co-author Trump: The Art of The Comeback, with Donald J. Trump. In 1997, the book hit #3 on the New York Times Bestseller List and #1 on the Wall Street Journal Best Seller List. The first run sold more than 500,000 copies.
In 1997, Ms. Bohner became a correspondent for CNBC, launching “Business Center” with Maria Bartiromo and Tyler Mathison. She went on to write, produce and broadcast “Kate Bohner’s Power File” on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” In 1998, Jack Reilly, the former executive producer at CNBC, joined Ms. Bohner and other NBC veterans in founding a startup, Internet news service, JAGfn, providing online content similar to that found on CNBC.
In 2000, Ms. Bohner joined E*TRADE as the Managing Editor of Digital Financial Media, anchoring the radio show E*TRADE on Air, WNEW 102.7 FM, as well as serving as the “face” of the brand change to E*TRADE Financial.
In 2002, Ms. Bohner returned to her roots in banking and joined, as partner, The Fort Hill Group, a New York-based investment banking, capital advisory and venture capital firm. While at Fort Hill, Ms. Bohner and her partner John R. Lakian formed and funded a medical device company, Living Independently Group, Inc. (www.livingindependently.com). Currently Ms. Bohner she continues her responsibilities as a non-operating, tri-founder.
Today Ms. Bohner is the President of Kate Bohner Productions, LLC (www.katebohnerproductions.com), a multi-media consulting firm based in Boca Raton, Florida. I hit send and went out for a 6-mile run.
To be continued …
KBTV::The Paramount
“Kate’s Take on KBTV”:: DAY 1_May 22, 2007
I was speaking on the phone the other day to my literary agent in New York, and I could hear that weird, familiar pant – heh heh heh heh – on the other end of the line. I can’t explain it. It’s an Agent thing. A peculiar combination of: “I’m reading my email-sipping Diet Coke-signaling my assistant-adjusting my headset-frantically thumbing a manuscript … and pretending that I’m interested in what you’re saying.” That kind of a pant. He was trying, you see, to convince me to go back to writing.
“People ask me about you all the time,” he muttered. Heh heh heh. “Come baaaaack!” You see, I’d made a bit of a name for myself co-authoring Donald Trump’s book, “Trump: The Art of the Comeback.”
My SuperAgent’s tone was unmistakable. Video blogging in South Florida? “What does that mean anyway?” Heh heh heh. Total, he reiterated over and over again, total waste of my time. “Have you lost your mind?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered by way of graciously ending the call. “I either lost it, or I got it back. We’ll see.” I hit the end button on my cell, and slumped back into the squishy peach chair on my balcony overlooking the sea.
How had it all happened? Six months ago, I thought I’d live the life of an artiste – barefoot, sun-kissed, stroking a big black Labrador, perched under a palm tree, outlining the next chapter of my new project – an ambitious tome detailing the a ruthless Titan of Industry’s creation of wealth, a memoir…that he didn’t have time to write…but wanted to say he had anyway.
My mind drifts back. How did I up in Florida in the first place?
It was an icy evening in mid December. My Holiday red and gold lame Versace gown hung like a smock on my rail thin frame. The firm’s Christmas party, again. What a chore. Another year, I thought, I’m just not sure if I can do this. I break into a Hollywood smile and push through the revolving doors of Doubles, in the basement of the Sherry Netherland in the Pierre Hotel on 60th and Fifth Avenue, the last bona fide private club in Manhattan. The sea of faces slowly came into focus. Ah, Walter, our corporate counsel. There’s Mitch, the comptroller, and conceivably the only person at the firm whom I liked anymore. Certainly the only colleague whom I’d eat lunch with. Then I saw them, the two aging, unctuous, haughty board members. I loathed them only slightly less than their wives. Be charming, Kate, please. It’s only one evening. You can do it. “Hello!” I waved pleasurably and ambled across to their table. “Can I get you all a glass of champagne?” It was 2005, the firm’s Christmas party. As the horns in the swing band whined, the aging dined, and the corporate glitterati wined, I become what felt like the omniscient narrator of my own story. I watched myself from above mingling in the crowd, nibbling on hors d’oeuvres, smiling politely and making pleasantries. Then suddenly, the crescendo of the horn section became a near screech, the room started to spin -- around and around like a ride in an amusement park -- until I found myself standing in the middle of the dance floor bewildered and faint. I looked up and thought: There is no one in this entire room that I ever want to break bread with – let alone speak to – ever again. I picked up my sequined bag, slipped my mink stole over my shoulders, walked out, and raised my hand signaling for a cab. As I marched past my doorman at 141 East 56th Street, I turned around and simply said: “Julio, I’m done.” Three weeks later, I’d moved to Florida.
It took me five months and two writing projects to figure out that I was achingly bored. My real problem was that I kept fibbing about it – and I’m not terribly effective at masking tedium, which gets me into heaps of trouble at cocktail parties. I was bored and anyone who met me knew it. Although if anyone dared suggest it to me, I would retort with a weary combination of indignant half-truths, and withering excuses, which gave the air of “Thou doth protest too much!”
That’s when I got the e-mail:
Kate.. basically I think there is an opportunity for a new voice/personality on the Internet; each technology creates at least one.
Charlie Rose and Larry King in their 60’s; a new set of such personalities are developing now. The idea of KBTV would be to produce 3 minute segments on a set of subjects that you really care a lot about, upload them to Youtube and its competitors, and use the viral nature of the web to develop a new audience. The data says that such audiences prefer short, humor, quirky and are very personality driven.. in your case the content plus you should really work in this medium! The shows could be produced on a balcony with the ocean behind you (with some front lighting) and you could do all of it yourself to start with and see what works. All you would need is a camera + Macintosh and a light/microphone… and the uploads would refer to your website for more info/more depth..I was intrigued. What an opportunity, I thought! I’ll become a video blogger in South Florida. Hmmm. That’s different. Sounds exciting! And on a shoe-string budget. How romantic! I immediately sent out a much copied (and subsequently forwarded) e-mail announcing my new career opportunity!
The only push back I remember getting was from an old friend at The Wall Street Journal.
“Kate … Whhhat? Videoblogging on YouTube at your age?” To be continued …
