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Leo Laporte’s must watch video on mass media’s future (or lack of it)

By | October 3, 2009, 10:19 AM PDT

It’s a rainy Saturday morning and what better thing to do than watch This WEEK in TECH host Leo Laporte’s marvelous talk about how mass media is dying and what’s replacing it.

Leo, who calls his `channel’ Twit.tv, talks about how advertisers are no longer willing to pay a king’s ransom to reach mass audiences which are minimally engaged with the product or service. He gave the talk at the Online News Association meeting Friday in San Francisco.

Thanks to Google and Yahoo, advertisers can pay far less for more effective focused reach. However, he also talks about how advertisers “smoke [Google's] crack.”

Leo has emerged as something of a visionary and is very entertaining. Here’s a another taste. A TV exec told him he could not sell ads to smart people because they can’t be “tricked” and do their own research. “Now television makes sense, doesn’t it,” Laporte says to gleeful audience of journalists.

Leo Laporte

Leo Laporte

I knew Leo when ZDtv (RIP) was created in 1998 when he was a dynamo there. He’s proving that he can still reinvent himself as a broadcaster and now, a podcaster. Ziff Davis, ZDtv’s creator, was also my employer at the time when it was a powerful computer and technology publisher. I made numerous appearances on pundit  John Dvorak’s tech news commentary show on ZDtv.

For some reason I could not embed the video and I would implore PaidContent.org to simplify its cluttered video player. That said, thanks for carry Leo’s Terrific talk. Click here to the watch video.

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John Dodge

About John Dodge

John Dodge was a contributing editor for SmartPlanet from 2009 to 2010.

John Dodge

John Dodge

Contributing Editor, Technology

John Dodge has written for the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, PC Week (now eWeek), EDN, Design News, Electronic Business, Bio-IT World, Health-IT World, Lowell Sun, Haverhill Gazette and Newburyport Daily News. He is based in Massachusetts.

Follow him on Twitter.

John Dodge

John Dodge

John Dodge prides himself on completely independent journalism. His opinions, observations and reporting are not influenced by any financial holdings. He holds no shares in computer, electronics, software or Internet companies. He also has no business affiliations with organizations except with those for which he creates content as a freelancer.

He writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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