The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Jerry Miller Was Live On The I Love CVille Show!

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Friday afternoon. It's the I Love Seville Show. Thank you kindly for joining us live in our studio in downtown Charlottesville. It's great to be with you guys. Thank you for a fun week of show content today, or excuse me, this week, the network is expanding. We, in very excited fashion, welcome Hillary Lewis Murray and the Juicy Details to the network this month. Her second show was this past Wednesday. Kyle Miller is back after being out of the studio with some health issues. He is back this coming Thursday in his 2.15 slot. And we are on the cusp of launching

two additional shows on this network that will likely fill the Tuesday 2.15 slot and either Monday or Friday at 2.15 p.m. We're focused on growing the network from a female perspective, from a woman perspective. Judah doesn't like when I use the word female. From a woman perspective. And making the network as well-rounded and as diverse in its thought and delivery as possible. So I'm excited to potentially offer you some expansion news as early as maybe next week. A couple of items I want to get out of the notebook. I sent you these links, Judah.

The first, if we can go to the one on the Central Virginian, it's the LoopNet listing. If you can put the photos on screen, I want to highlight a couple of buildings that are for sale and or for lease that have been sent my way. This is the Central Virginian in Louisa County. The home to the Central Virginian newspaper is currently for sale. Central Virginian for sale. Give us the thumbs up when those photos are on screen. The building size is 3,750 square feet.

It's got an asking price of $475,000, a price per square of $127 a square foot. It's a 23-year-old building. Plenty of parking, 20 parking spaces. In fact, 5.33 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of leased space. The Central Virginian newspaper, the building for sale, asking price $475,000. Of course, newspapers don't need headquarters anymore. This isn't the only newspaper that is passing or it's shedding its physical presence.

The Seville Weekly on the downtown mall is now home to, is it President Kennedy, a hopeful candidate that's running for president? His campaign headquarters. Am I right there, Judah? Yeah, definitely. What do you know about that candidate? I know that his family is not very happy. A lot of his family, I think, is not very happy with him being, I think. Are you on a two-shot?

Just about. Let's see. There we go. Yeah, I think his family is not happy that he's going to be opposing Biden. I'd be happy to have a third-party candidate. We've talked about that. Yeah. Yeah, we've talked about that. Let me know when the LoopNet photos are on.

I've got to download them. The newspaper business is just not a business that needs much physical presence anymore. The Daily Progress previously was headquartered on Rio Road. I know that building intimately. We worked there for years. It was home to its printing press. It was home to its advertising department. It was home to its print and editorial team. It was a pretty, at one time, vast headquarters.

In fact, the Daily Progress, its headquarters used to be across the street from where our studio is located on Market Street. If you look at the building that's directly across from where I'm sitting right now, right next to the Enterprise Center, you can still see the markings of the original Daily Progress sign from its Market Street location. They used to print the newspaper on Market Street. The staff used to work there. They used to come out of its Market Street location and have a couple of beverages on the downtown mall. And then they moved to Ryle Road from the city of Charlottesville to Albemarle County. I thought it was a perplexing move. would move from the heartbeat of town, where the courts are, where the police department is, where the judges, the attorneys, the bankers, the business owners, where the commerce, the heartbeat

of commerce is, to Class C space on Rio Road. Didn't make a whole lot of sense. It really diminishes the brand exposure of what the progress had in downtown Charlottesville. But its location on Rio Road, as I mentioned, I knew extremely well. It was a large headquarters. And I watched firsthand as that headquarters slowly got chopped down. They moved the printing press out of the newspaper, out of Rio Road. And once media general... So here's a little history of the paper. The Worrell family owned the Daily Progress.

The Worrell family sold to Media General. Media General was a newspaper and media conglomerate. Media General sold to the Warren Buffett media outfit. Warren Buffett sold to Lee Enterprises, the current owner right now. The current owner right now is looking to trim as much fat as humanly possible. And some of the fat trimming maneuvers

done by not only Lee Enterprises, but also by Warren Buffett's organization, certainly in the latter stages of media generals' ownership, was taking the printing press outside or away from Charlottesville, literally causing the loss of jobs for 10 or 12 printing press operators that knew no other line of work, that literally were working at a printing press from high school years until well into

their 40s, 50s, and 60s. They then moved the advertising and editorial teams, and they pretty much had them go remote. Now you have newspaper hubs where one hub is doing the designing and the printing for a bunch of newspapers. So what Lee is trying to do is utilize economies of scale and a vertically integrated concept where it prints one newspaper, where it prints a bunch of newspapers from one location, has one design team for a bunch of locations, and basically has its staff working in remote capacities. And we're seeing this with the Central Virginian newspaper. The Central Virginian is a relied upon brand in Louisa County. The Central Virginian has got a pretty significant history. Let me see

if I can give you the exact history. Since 1912, the central Virginian has served Louisa County and Lake Anna. Do you have those photos on screen? Not yet. That's taking a long time. Some of them are not working. I can put a few of them on. Yeah, a few is better than none. Here we go.

Show us. Got a thumbs up? Yep. This paper's been around since 1912. Buildings for sale right now. What do you think is the future of when my kids get high school age, college age of media locally, Judah?

Could you repeat that? What do you think the future is of media locally, Judah? Could you repeat that? What do you think the future is of media when my kids locally get to high school, I mean, say 10 years from now? When's the last time you've watched television? Probably at my parents' house over Christmas break. They've still got the cord connected. They've still got the cord connected. They've still got the cord connected? Yeah.

How old are your parents? What? Are they in their 70s? Yeah. My dad is almost out of the 70s. He's about to be 80? Yeah. Yeah. He likes to watch his sports. Then there's, I mean, you know, my dad loves scrolling through the, you know, through the guide, seeing what's on, stuff like that. Mr. D, welcome to the broadcast. But I cut the cord years ago. It just wasn't worth it anymore. Yeah, we cut the cord eight years ago, nine years ago. What do you think the future

of media is? Locally, locally, locally. I'm focused on local here. I mean, that's a tough one. We're losing newscasters, people that are, you know, people that actually go out

and find the stories. I would like to think that we'll, I'd like to think that at some point we'll find trustworthy names and brands that become the, that come to the forefront of news. Well, of course. But what do you think that future is? Like I said, I think somebody has to take the reins and prove worthiness, trustworthiness, and make it a profitable business?

Not sure, you know. What's your forecast? Well, I mean, I've highlighted my forecast in the past. I think the Times Dispatch is going to be the paper of record for the Commonwealth, and the various newspapers under the Lee Enterprise umbrella are going to be bureaus of the Times Dispatch is going to be the paper of record for the Commonwealth, and the various newspapers under the Lee Enterprise umbrella are going to be bureaus of the Times Dispatch. So I think the Daily Progress will turn into one, two, or three reporters,

and they're going to funnel content to a news desk, maybe in Richmond, and that news desk is going to edit, design it, lay it out, and it's going to be print somewhere in one headquarters, and we're going to have one newspaper for the entire Commonwealth, and there'll be a Charlottesville section. There'll be like a Waynesboro subsection.

And you think your kids will read the dispatch? I think the kids will read the dispatch online. I don't think there's going to be a print product anymore. I think the challenge, I was having this conversation with a potential client this morning. And this potential client this morning was doing print placement for her respective business. And she mentioned to me while doing print placement for her respective business that she was getting no feedback. Very little return on it. That the print ad was not reflecting the look of her brand, the color palette of her brand, and had a QR code

that was directing to the wrong landing page. So here you're paying for something in print. The color palette did not reflect her brand, and there was a QR code that was supposed to be the gateway link to help her monetize, to help her drive revenue and customer engagement,

and the QR code was going to the wrong place. That's crazy. And I spoke to the static nature of what potentially this person was doing with their advertising and the static nature of how, when compared to social and digital and mobile use correctly, I'm not convinced that the only local solution is going to be just the time-suspatched, though. I think there's going to be some other option.

Like, I love what Charlottesville Tomorrow does. Seville Tomorrow is a nonprofit news organization. It's funded in large portion by grant money. Seville Tomorrow, when Brian Wheeler was the executive director and when Sean Tubbs was working for it, covered news and land use and zoning, I thought much more timely and efficiently and newsworthy-wise than what's happening now. I think what Seville Tomorrow is doing right now is featuring potentially more long-form written content that is focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion

as opposed to an education. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and education as opposed to zoning, land use, development. It's less watchdog, and it's more... Excuse me. watchdog and it's more it's excuse me it's um it's it's less land use zoning business government watchdog and it's more thought-provoking dei and education content and there's certainly a need for education and DEI content. And why the editorial model has pivoted in that direction is because they're pursuing grant money to keep their nonprofit

running in the black. And that grant money that's out there right now is tied to that kind of content. So you saw when Brian Wheeler was the executive director, he focused on the happenings inside City Hall. Giles Morris took over. Giles, the former editor of the SEVA Weekly, and Giles took the model from land use, zoning, and the happenings inside City Hall and local government, and he shifted that focus to content that was DEI-focused that allowed the nonprofit to attract outside grant money at a greater clip. Brian's way of keeping the nonprofit alive or in the black was through donations from private individuals. And what Sean Tubbs is doing, I think Sean Tubbs is fantastic with his Charlottesville sub stack. Sean is filling the niche of what Brian and Sean used to do with the early years of Charlottesville tomorrow.

The challenge is monetization to ensure the longevity of what Sean's doing. Yeah, no doubt. Like, would Sean, could Sean and Molly Cogner, Socialist Dog Mom on Twitter, who has a, what's it called when you, a Patreon, Molly has a Patreon, could they join forces and create a fantastic editorial brand?

I think Molly does a great job. I hope Socialist Dog Mom hears this. I think, that's her Twitter handle, Socialist Dog Mom. I think she does a great job. I hope socialist dog mom hears this. I think that's her Twitter handle, socialist dog mom. I think she does a great job of covering what's happening inside local government by live tweeting meetings. Yeah, no doubt. The challenge she has is her content is specifically on the Twitter platform, or at least that's where folks know it. And it's tough for her to monetize it outside of the Patreon that she's offering where people kick her a monthly fee. Like what could happen if Sean and Molly joined forces?

No doubt. What could happen if Seville tomorrow, Sean and Molly join forces? What's happening with the Seville? The Seville's newspaper headquarters is now the campaign headquarters for President Hopeful. Does that bode well for the Seville Weekly? Do they have a new headquarters? No. There's no new headquarters. Wow.

What happens if their print product is not, continues to, I'm choosing my words carefully here. Is monetizing print the way to go? I mean, the fact that the Central Virginian is for sale, the building, with an asking price of $475,000 is a clear indication that, and we've all known this, that the news model is doing a complete about face. When have you watched, viewers and listeners, a news broadcast recently? I rarely watched news broadcasts back when I did have cable TV. I mean, I'm Netflix, Prime, Peacock, Paramount Plus, Apple TV,

our family, Disney, ESPN app. And that gives us everything. Almost everything. What's missing? Local. It's missing? Local. It's all online. I'm just saying, in terms of what you've got on the TV. And the local stuff is all online.

I mean, folks are mentioning to us, we're providing a lot of the localized content for them. I don't know, that's the kind of stuff that I think about. I think about it on behalf of our clients, and I think about it on behalf of it being a passion. Neil Williamson says, do you think the flagship papers, Washington Post, New York Times,

Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times will continue printing? I do not. I think Neil Williamson knows media inside and out like we do. He's the president of the Free Enterprise Forum. I do not. I think we are going to see the, I think the Wall Street Journal will continue to print. Maybe the Financial Times will continue to print. Maybe the Financial Times will continue to print. I think you could get weekly editions like maybe you see with Barron's, which is a financial periodical.

Love Barron's. I think this is going to be gate-walled or pay-walled. And there's a ways around the paywall. Yeah. Should we highlight that or no? I don't think that's probably advantageous to highlight ways around the paywall, right? Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't anyways. It always works locally.

You're talking about... Yeah. I mean... I mean, a lot of the content, if you're just in private browser, you can get. Yeah. And then there's... That was what I meant.

It sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Well, you know the other website, though, where you can pop in the URL into the search bar, and then it scrubs the content but lets you read the words. Yeah. That site's also good for just for sanity because it also scrubs all the ads.

Right. So if that site is scrubbing the ads and you're just reading the words, how is that content monetized appropriately to preserve the business model? Well, even with

ads, 12ft.io appropriately to preserve the business model. Well, even with ads. Even with ads. 12ft.io. Yeah. 12ft.io. You can take it from there. You make... A lot of the monetization comes from actually clicking the ads.

So if you're not clicking ads, I don't know how... That's not true. It's sold on a cost per thousand. It's not sold on a click-through rate. See, that's not true what you said. Are you 100% sure about that? This is literally the business I'm in. It's not sold on click-through rate.

It's sold on a cost per thousand visibility. Okay. CPM. It's sold on cost per thousand visibility. CPM, it's sold on a CPM, not on click-through rate. You know why it's not sold on click-through rate? Because nobody clicks. Because the click-through rate is minimal. It's positioned in a way as if it was a billboard that Lamar was selling on the side of the road. That's how this is being sold to clients.

The banner ad is no different than a billboard that you see on the side of the road when you're driving down Pantops, or you're passing that billboard corral on High Street next to Cosner Brothers. That's how it's being sold. And how it's being positioned as potentially being more dynamic than a billboard by advertising representatives

is you could potentially click this ad and go to a website where you can't do that with a billboard on the side of the road. The problem is, is there's ad blockers that block billboards. And there's paywall sites. There's sites that allow you to

slide off paywalls. Neil Williamson says, the irony is, did J-Dub just slam ads? What is it VMV Brands does? VMV Brands creates dynamic advertising solutions that are not print ads. Like, take this show right here. On screen you see the logos of our businesses. Those cannot be blocked by

an ad blocker. We could also offer on air or or verbalized call-to-action messages. I don't think it's a bright future for media. I don't think so either. I think even movies are in trouble. Obviously. Deep Throat. Local TV news is already dead, Deep Throat says. You see 23-year-old journalists trawling for

quotes on NextDrawer. They don't report. They just lightly regurgitate better sources. Deep Throat also says, and for the... Deep Throat, I'm not going to read this one. He basically is saying that the content is for the geriatric over 80 consumer of local news.

And he suspects that the ROI of advertising in the DP is close to non-existent. He also says, I can tell you that our main trading desk no longer receives physical copies of the Wall Street Journal or Financial Times. We buy everybody online accounts. I have both for the

Wall Street Journal, and I know I'm one of the last that prefers the print product, but there's something about the print. I also am a huge fan of Barron's. Think about it. If the digital era,

if media is heading for a strictly digital era, right, and there's browsers that specialize in ad blocking or have plug-ins for ad blocking, how can digital media be monetized? Obviously not through websites. I think it's... Take it a step further. VMV Brands, this behind us, is an advertising agency

where we drive revenue for our clients, and we're very good at doing this. Very good at doing this. Initially, with an advertising agency, the services that we were providing 16 years ago are not the services that are happening right now. I want someone to help answer this question for me. If the written word, when it comes to news

and covering a community, is heading strictly digital, and there's browsers and websites that specify or focus on blocking digital ad placement. How can that digital written word continue? I think eventually it might come down to not necessarily Patreon, but patrons. Guilt? What? You basically are appealing to people's guilt? Is that what you're saying?

No. What do you mean by guilt? You said patrons? Yeah. Explain what you're saying here. I'm saying that eventually it might come down to people with money saying, look, this is worth keeping going. You're appealing to people's guilt. I don't see it that way, but. All right. way but all right you there's a fine line between people feeling sorry and and and and feeling bad to keep a news organization and the accountability that comes with watchdog journalism okay that's

basically what you're saying right that for it to survive locally they're going to have to appeal to folks that are extremely wealthy that are going to basically underwrite it or subsidize it. I wasn't talking about them appealing to someone like that. I think eventually it may come down to people in local areas, people with the means saying, look, this is a worthwhile endeavor and it's going to go away if somebody doesn't prop it up and that person will you know will be uh basically like uh basically like a news a news uh baron uh somebody that uh i wouldn't say controls the news but somebody that you know buys the uh buys the the media company and says, look, we're going to – So almost synonymous with like a wealthy person

who's got the vanity of owning a restaurant. Yeah, kind of. Who wants to say at a cocktail party, I own this restaurant. It's a patron, like I said. I mean there used to be – I'm sure there are still patrons, but, uh, there used to be, you know, patrons that, uh, that basically, uh, funded artists or writers or, uh, you know, people that had a specialty that wasn't easily marketable. And I think, uh, eventually we may come to a point where people like that are going to be necessary for things like news agencies to keep going.

Because you're right. How do you make money if you can't make money? That's what I'm saying. How do you make money if the technology keeps you from making money on it? it. You've got to have somebody that appreciates what you do enough to patronize and pay for the service for everyone else. Ray Caddell watching. My 93-year-old mother reads the news online, but we do watch NBC 29 still. No print for either of us, Ray Caddell. Vanessa Parkhill says she still watches network TV and she's under 60. Vanessa, I would have guessed under 50. Queen of Earlysville. Deep Throat says one possible future is outlets

associated with political parties or causes, which has a deep history in the U.S., certainly in the early 19th century. The political entity supports the outlet as a way to basically propaganda. That's what he's saying. He says the winners are the outlets with content that people will pay money for. I need the Financial Times for work, and I've also written pieces in the Financial Times, D-Throat says. I need the Wall Street Journal's work, and I pay a couple hundred bucks a year for each. The Daily Progress would have to pay me to inflict the brain damage he says on myself associated with reading their content.

I'm choosing his words. I'm substituting my words for his words. It was more scathing commentary than he offered. Or maybe it becomes niche content. How so?

Like, Bart Isley tried to do this with scrimmage play, covering Central Virginia high school sports. Could you create a robust enough digital platform and put it behind a paywall that people would support a high school sports outlet in central Virginia just for central Virginia sports central Virginia high school sports because you can get the UVA sports anywhere there was at a time where the saber.com which is owned by friend of the program neil uh chris wright the saber.com was the only spot that you would get UVA sports

coverage. Mike Ingalls launched the Sabre.com. When did the Sabre launch? The Sabre launched and it's 25 years old. When it initially launched, its message board and its content was the spot for UVA. Now you've got Jerry Ratcliffe. He and I do the Jerry and Jerry Show. JerryRatcliffe.com. That's our premier source. You've got 247 Sports. You've got the Sabre.

You've got Locker Room Access. You've got ESPN. You've got Sports Illustrated. They're all covering it. It's a crowded UVA athletic space. So you're saying that in order for other news outlets to make money, they need to find a niche that... Where they're the only one. Yeah.

But how niche is too niche? That's a problem. Central Virginia high school sports? It's pretty niche. But if you have a field hockey team, will two people, will two or three families on that field hockey team pay $30 a

month to have coverage? And do you have enough editorial content for them to pay it? Right. Do you have enough editorial content for high school football? Do you have enough editorial content for volleyball or golf or soccer? Right. Sean is doing a great job and he's focused primarily on land use and zoning and development. Yeah. How do you monetize something that seems to be unmonetizable? And does it become basically a vanity play for wealthy folks

that a wealthy family or individual underwrites or subsidizes the outlet to be able to say I am the one that's doing this and own it or just to be able to support something that they appreciate there you go let's go to John Blair watching the program that they appreciate. There you go.

Let's go to John. John Blair watching the program. He says, take a look at the decline of print media in the past 20 years, and he shares a stat on LinkedIn, a link. I will check that out, John. He says, you are 100% correct, Jerry. There will not be a print product in five years

except for the Wall Street Journal or Financial Times. The actual trend for media and news is simply what we've seen in the past two decades, specialization and silos. I don't think this is a good trend, but it's true. Digital media will be monetized by subscriptions. A number of sub-stackers have gone to a strictly subscriber-based model. Everything is behind a paywall. Yeah. And the tough part of being behind a paywall is you're creating the class system of news. Which not everybody can afford. Not everyone's going to be able to afford the news.

So if you monetize and commoditize, if you make news premium behind a paywall that's 40, 50, 60 bucks a month, you are then limiting a large portion of the population reading the news, which means a small portion of the population gets the insider information. And if a small portion of the population gets the inside information, then that small portion of the population has a huge advantage over the large portion of the population that does not have that inside information. And that small portion of the population could utilize that insider information for personal and financial gain in real time and for generations to come. Like if someone is looking to do, say, development or land use or zoning or is looking

to get into the real estate game, and if they're able to afford a monthly subscription of 50, 60 bucks and see where the trends are heading, and they're able to position their efforts opportunistically to get ahead of the folks that cannot afford the 50 or 60 dollars and can't get that information elsewhere. Yeah. Better investing opportunities. Premium news could further the gentrification of society. Yeah. Premium paywalled news will further the wealth gap and the educational gap and expedite

gentrification at potentially similar conversational levels or similar levels of increased tax assessments. That's bananas right there. Vanessa Parkhill, people funding niche content with regard to news is probably not the best for our society. We are all better off with diverse

content and viewpoints in one place to avoid confirmation bias. Sadly, I'm afraid that's not where we're heading. You're exactly right, Jerry. Right. How do low-income folks get the news if everything is behind a paywall? Maybe we go back to the town crier standing in the public square. Lisa Custolo is suggesting that we try Maybels in Dyke. She says it's wonderful. Carly Wagner says Maybels is wonderful. I don't know, something I was noodling today. I don't think the free model works.

I don't think the print ad model works. It's bananas. Central Virginians for sale. $475,000. Louisa County. What are you doing this weekend? We'll get out on that note. Let's see.

I'm probably going to take Liza out somewhere, have a little fun. I'm definitely going to get out on Sunday and enjoy the weather before the rain comes back

next week. More rain? More rain. I mean, the dirt, the ground's already soaking saturated wet. I know. I've been getting notifications of like two or three inches of snow on Tuesday. I saw that. But come on.

I'll believe it when I see it. Yeah. Did your house get flooded, your ground, ground level? I don't have a basement, so I didn't notice any flooding in my area. Don't you have that back sliding door on the back of your house? Yeah, but it's... It's elevated? Yeah, it goes out to a little porch that's probably like two feet off the ground.

You've got a little bit of elevation there. Imagine what with that rain that we've had if that Wendell Wood project on the Rivanna River had come to reality. They would be wet. Yeah, and it also could have affected the people downstream from them. I'm also – a lot of my neighborhood is also kind of on hills or not so much – I don't know. It's all kind of like a little dell or a little valley in there. So I don't think we'd ever have a problem with flooding there. Good.

How about that? Because there are a lot of wet basements. Yeah. My dad used to be in basement waterproofing in Maine. I didn't know that. That was also a very large problem. Well, Monday, we're back in the saddle. Keith Smith's back.

He's celebrating his birthday today with his family. Happy birthday, Keith. Happy birthday, Keith Smith. And we may have some news on a new talk show. That's the Friday edition of the I Love Seville show. Judah Wickauer, Jerry Miller, thank you kindly for joining us. So long, everybody. Thank you.