Why TV Is Alive and Kicking and Newspapers Instead Are Dead

Because this is not what we mean when we say “TV”.

This, as the caption to this photograph says, is an old-fashioned four legged TV set.

What we really mean by “TV” is the content — you know, the black and white moving pictures of times gone by, the news, the funnies, the sitcoms, the highly polished movies or the computer-generated special effects — that is delivered via the above TV set.

Or via a newer appliance, a computer, a smartphone or an iPad. Because nobody really cares much about the appliance — unless it has a logo of an apple on it, that is.

We’re dealing with a metonymy here. Like when we say: “We drank a bottle”.

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But the same is true for “newspapers”. What we really mean is: the news.

This.

Not these.

Fair enough. But much more has changed than in the case of moving pictures.

With the move to a new delivery system on the web, newspapers lost most of the revenue they used to make from classified ads to websites that deal exclusively in classified ads.

Advertising suffered a similar downturn. With the move to the web, ads placed against the news went from being the least intrusive and often best performing format of ads available to advertisers to being ads that just don’t work (online banner ads).

Lastly, a large part of the news has moved from the written word to moving pictures.

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TV, instead, is alive and kicking for two reasons: First because, while nobody (except antiquarians, perhaps) cares much about old-fashioned four legged TV sets, we always want more content that informs us, entertains us and lets us lean back and enjoy the show.

Second, because, when done properly, television commercials work. Unlike banners ads, TVCs can create awareness and demand for new products, or increase the demand and sales of products already on the market. That’s right. That’s why companies buy TV ads.

Not because they’re new or cool or they make their companies look hip and “social”.