Back in business

I am sure that the dozens (if not hundreds) of you who read this blog have been wondering, "Where the heck are you?" Well, vacation in Virginia Beach was really special -- my first week-long vacation with exclusively my nuclear family (no parents or in-laws allowed on this one). And, of course, when one goes on vacation for a week, there is the inevitable backlog of items to be tended to at the office. Not much time for blogging when there's "real" work to be done.

Today, I am taking this 10-minute break from the CTAM conference in Philadelphia. I am using the Tribune Media Services business center at the conference to post this report. (How cool is that?)

Anyway, I should have some interesting things to say later about some of the speakers and roundtable discussions here at the cable industry's big trade show. For starters, this morning's keynote speaker, Shelly Lazarus, of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide was ... how should I say ... phenomenal. She talked about how companies that want to survive today need to fall in love with their customers, and the love will flow back (in dollars). One amazing but true point she made (and I'll paraphrase):

Back in the early days of television, on a given night, the three major networks were able to capture 80% of the households viewing television. Today, you need to tally the top 57 broadcast and cable channels to capture that same 80% share! It's a diverse world in today's media arena.