Michael Jackson ‘event’ reveals redefined media

Analysis of the coverage of the pop star’s death and memorial shows the changing nature of news, the effect of celebrity branding and the cloyingly close relationship between media, commerce and fame.
By Oresti Patricios, CEO, Ornico

Johannesburg, Thursday 09 July 2009 – Michael Jackson’s death and memorial has become one of the biggest media events in living history alongside the recent inauguration of inauguration of President Barack Obama, and the 1997 funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. As the saga unfolded it clearly showed the role of social media in redefining news, and the close relationship between media, commerce and celebrity.

While mainstream traditional news has long demanded the clarification of facts, social media’s first to market rule, and hunger for traffic, saw the Time Warner owned celebrity gossip site, TMZ, break news of Jackson’s death. TMZ created a viral phenomenon that saw social media users spread word of the news on Twitter and Facebook with link backs to TMZ. Traditional and online news brands quickly picked up on the story quoting and linking back to TMZ, enhancing the gossip site’s online footprint dramatically. Marketing research and media tracking company, comScore, Inc reports that TMZ’s traffic hiked 70% off the back of the news which drove 7.95 million visitors to the site in the week of Jackson’s death ending 28 June 2009.

The traffic surge made TMZ the biggest and most quoted celebrity news site over the period, trumping other celebrity sites like OMG! (owned by Yahoo); People; USMagazine.com; Entertainment Weekly; E! Online and Perez Hilton. The event confirmed that news is a commodity with speed, and being first to break big news, yielding a triumphant traffic effect. The phenomenon confirmed an earlier comScore research report that showed that Americans are increasingly getting their entertainment news online, with online video becoming an increasingly important channel for content.

This is a trend local entertainment print titles like Heat would do well to take note of, particularly with local municipalities getting involved in rolling out broadband while government invests a reported R950 million in Broadband Infraco. Together with 2010, the landing of the new sea cables and the move by mobile to make internet access more pervasive, broadband will become cheaper and more accessible. As broadband becomes pervasive, print media will have their day of reckoning and will need to re-evaluate their business models. Print media will be increasingly threatened by connected consumers who look to access breaking news through digital channels.

Two trends will emerge. The first will be the continued migration of commoditised news online, and the consolidation of news desks and brands. Print will need to reinvent itself to remain relevant. The second will be the increased tabloid nature of celebrity news as titles seek to drive up flagging print sales. Internationally OK!Weekly supported this trend by choosing to put a controversially grim photograph of Michael Jackson on its cover. The photo, the last taken of the pop icon, showed a dying Jackson being taken to hospital. Media reports state that the magazine paid some $500,000 for exclusive UK and US magazine rights to the photo. This is an obvious effort to capitalize on Jackson mania in order to boost circulation and dwindling news stand sales.

The effect of the massive media attention was immediately translated commercially. iTunes and BitTorrent downloads went skyrocketing while Jackson CDs continue to dominate the top ten in Amazon’s best seller lists. Rolling Stone Magazine reports that the King of Pop outsold four new releases and topped billboard charts to sell over 800,000 copies in the week after his death. The 19% spike in Web traffic reported on the day of Jackson’s memorial shows that voyeurism and celebrity are firmly entrenched consumer habits, and that media and social networks will continue to exploit and capitalize on this hunger to drive traffic and subsequent advertising revenue.

For media and commerce it will be a matter of ‘The King is dead. Long live the King’. As with Princess Diana whose image and icon still delivers sales on books, magazines and memorabilia, so too the King of Pop will be used to drive media, record and memorabilia sales.