Traditional Media Brands Rise to the Task as a Celebrity Dies

As my colleague Cathy Taylor wrote earlier today, the death of the singer/dancer Michael Jackson was a major media event that illustrates how much our industry has evolved in recent years. But the pop star’s death also proved to be an unprecedented challenge for the big search engines and social media sites like Twitter.

First, consider the effect on Google. According to the company’s official blog, “The spike in searches related to Michael Jackson was so big that Google News initially mistook it for an automated attack. As a result, for about 25 minutes yesterday, when some people searched Google News they saw a “We’re sorry” page before finding the articles they were looking for.”

The chart at the top of this post shows the unprecedented spike in search traffic that early reports of Jackson’s death provoked. Google being Google, I’m quite sure this experience will instigate some learning as to how to prepare for similar spikes, which — given the nature of the celebrity news-driven business model employed by so many companies — are inevitable over the years to come.

Meanwhile, traffic to Twitter due to reports of Jackson’s passing reportedly doubled to the astonishing rate of 24,000 per minute. Twitter once again led mainstream news outlets by a significant time margin with the news that Jackson was dead.

Then again, Twitter erroneously led mainstream news outlets with the false news reports that several other celebrities had died. This event may contain some important learnings for traditional news media about how they might better fit into the evolving ecology in an age where social media like Twitter are ascendant.

The “news” may break over Twitter, but the confirmation will only come via trusted news brands. Plus, the context and the true meaning of the event belongs entirely to the likes of MTV, CNN, and Rolling Stone. There is a very nice business model to be realized here, once the traditionals let go of the old fantasy that it matters who is first, who it is that actually “breaks” news.

Hell, leave that to Twitter, i.e., the crowd. They’ve already proven they are better than you are — in the China earthquakes, the Australian fires, the plane landing in the Hudson, the Iranian rebellion, and now the death of a pop icon.

You will never again be able to compete with them on this level. The crowd hears the ambulance before you possibly can; the crowd has a thousand eyes to your (at best) two. But the crowd will get things wrong a certain percentage of the time, and the crowd knows this.

That’s where you come in. You will check sources, evaluate credibility, come to an informed judgment, all of those things old professors like me taught you in graduate school. Then, you and you alone, will provide the thoughtful context for people to evaluate the meaning of what has just happened.

This what great writers, above all, have always done. The new media model is establishing a place for great writing and great thinking. Do not mistake gadgets, platforms, or buzzwords for anything more than they are — tools, albeit extremely useful and powerful tools.

Every successful media company in the future will recognize, and embrace, once again, the essential role of the trusted ethical reporter and editor. Those who don’t will pass away, victims of their own arrogant ignorance.

Thanks to Thierry Lamouline.