But wait, there's more

[John Maihos]

Branching off from the Moe Lauzier thread....

I just left the infomercial business. (They seem to prefer the name 
"direct response advertising," possibly to legitimize the business, 
or to avoid the scam factor associated with some infomercials.)

It seems that some radio and cable stations fight for a piece of this 
action. They practically give the time away rather than have the slot 
run empty, or incur the expense of talent.

While this is a revenue boost in the short term, some would say that 
the long term affect on listenership will undoubtedly decrease, which 
will eventually decrease rates and "real" ad dollars from local 
business and national accounts that are more likely to be sustainable.

In some ways, there is a parallel between this and the shift away 
from local business districts in favor of the mallification (is that 
a word??) of America. (The WBZ news clip of the fellow saying 
"generic is generic" comes to mind.)  There's something to be said 
for the mom and pop store, just as there is something to be said for 
the local talent.

Has anyone studied the affect of infomercials on media outlets and listeners?


At 10:35 PM 3/6/2008, kvahey@comcast.net wrote:

>Infomercials are nice clean revenue. No talent or ad agency fees to 
>worry about.
>WEZE maybe the most profitable signal in the market as they happily
>lease away and have no employees to speak of.

-John Maihos