Returning The Remote

I Looked In The Cushions

In 2000, as web producer of the Boston-based NECN.com, I became a fan of Lost Remote, a newsletter-turned-website for news “webmasters.” Cory Bergman, the Seattle-based visionary, had started LR and it was one of the few resources out there for those of us trying to figure out what the heck we were doing with our sites. There was no guidebook; everything was homebrewed. Our system at NECN was built by a couple of guys at MIT. If the video card broke, I went to Staples and bought a new one. (Getting reimbursed wasn’t always easy.) There were no WorldNows or Internet Broadcasting-type services to provide us with a template from which to work. And it was great.

Sometime that year (or early the following year), I met Cory at a gathering of journalists in Washington, D.C. I introduced myself to Cory and said I’d like to write for Lost Remote. “Fine,” he said, “as long as you don’t mind not getting paid.” I asked for a fancy title and, with that, became “East Coast Bureau Boss.”

Lost Remote became a successful vertical publication, so much so that we got invited to speak at conventions. Presenting at the then-titled Radio Television News Directors Association in Las Vegas became an annual rite every April. We became the first bloggers given press credentials to cover the RTNDA and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference that happened simultaneously.

I was fortunate. My boss at NECN, Charlie Kravetz, didn’t mind if I slipped an entry into LR during work hours. I think he liked the attention it drew to our reputation. And I paid my own way to Vegas, which didn’t hurt.

I drew enough interest from LR and our presentations to start a consultancy. Within a year, it was purchased by Jerry Gumbert and AR&D, a Texas-based firm. For three years, I traveled the country visiting TV stations, preaching New Media. My business partner, Terry Heaton, and I hoped to change the world of local news. Our success was so-so. We overestimated how much stations would be willing to change. Only now are we seeing the kinds of digital offerings that Terry and I recommended in 2009.

Gumbert was patient and kind, but our division was not successful. For one, we got killed by the Great Recession. But mostly, TV wasn’t buying what we were selling. News Directors and general managers saw YouTube as a threat. They saw social media as a joke (you may agree with this assessment, but you can’t debate how good a tool it is for sharing news). In 2010, AR&D and I parted ways.

The last dozen years have been remarkable. I have worked in news, production, social media and now podcasting for the regional sports company, Seamans Media. By undertaking this Substack, I’m returning to LR the way it started - as a newsletter to a small but, hopefully, supportive group of people interested in What Comes Next.

If you’re interested in what I’ve been up to lately, I’m using the new Substack podcast feature to embed one of the podcasts I produce, New England Baseball Journal’s “Base Path.”

I have taken the liberty of sending this to you, my friends. I know we all get too many newsletters. But if you decide to subscribe,

I hope I will earn your readership.

- Steve