June
26
New Media: TMZ's Levin is Most-Feared Online Celeb Monger
TMZ's Harvey Levin has become as powerful in Hollywood as Walter Winchell, writes the NYT. The Mel Gibson DUI rant alerted me to TMZ, which is the future of online journalism. I wrote a story on Levin, who has a strong relationship with L.A. County Sheriff Lee Bacca, last year:
Harvey Levin COMPANY: Managing editor, TMZ.com WHY: A year ago, Levin figured out that if he posted well-reported breaking celebrity news stories on the Internet, many eyeballs would come -- and so would burgeoning ad revenue.BACK STORY: "I'm a mut," says the veteran creator/executive producer of Telepictures Prods.' syndicated TV show "Celebrity Justice," which lasted four seasons. "I'm a TV guy, I'm not going to the Internet," he said when he was first approached to start a Web site. But then Levin recalled his frustration on "Celebrity Justice" when they'd be forced to break news on their Web site that they couldn't break on the TV show. "People never thought the Internet could ever be a competitive news source," he says. But just as Levin was about to sign a deal with another network, it struck him that he could make a Web site into "a real functioning news organization," he says, "not (like) Slate (.com). More about breaking news and enterprise stories." He eventually pitched the idea for TMZ.com as the first co-venture between Warner Bros.-owned Telepictures and AOL. "I was banking on AOL's ability to drive traffic and Telepictures' ability to produce and supply video."
TMZ's huge breakout story in July put the site on the map: Mel Gibson's arrest in Malibu on a DUI charge -- and subsequent anti-Semitic rant. A tip to a staff production assistant about his arrest led to the Gibson story -- and Levin's call to the County Sheriff's office. "We broke it at 8:36 p.m. on a Friday evening. We didn't have to wait until we put a TV show to bed or until the newspaper was published or another 24 hours on the news cycle. When we get it right, we get it up. It's about getting things out instantly. At 8:36, the world got it -- it's not about who's watching TV right now. It's hard for others to compete with that. They don't have that kind of agility."
INNOVATIVE APPROACH: TMZ.com, which has a staff of 25 editors, reporters and fact-checkers in Los Angeles and New York, is all about being first with breaking show business stories and "digging up things, going to the courts, getting video angles on stories and creating a vibrant news site."
LEADING EDGE: The radical idea behind TMZ.com was to monetize its chief asset. Instead of being an adjunct to another news organization, the Web site itself makes money by breaking news, says Levin, whose staff fact-checks each story on the Zone before it goes up online. "Accuracy is a big deal for us. If we're wrong, there's legal exposure. We're so careful, we haven't been sued. We don't have time periods. When you start breaking stories, they can't ignore you. Everyone picks up our stuff. A good story is a good story. And there are plenty of stories out there. "
THE ROAD AHEAD: As broadband video technology evolves, so, too, will TMZ.com,
which has been adding blogs like City of Industry, which often breaks film-industry news before the trades do, and a vastly improved embedded flash video player. Next up: programming for mobile phones.
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While as a rule I really don't care all that much what TMZ reports on (mostly celebrity gossip-type tripe), I do respect them in the one area of their coverage: when a legal matter involving someone in the entertainment industry is pending (criminal or civil), TMZ will post the pleadings to their site. Having a law degree and a bar card, I can then read the filings and the source dociments for myself and make my own determination as to how I think the cases might turn out and figure out what the story in question really is and what its outcome turns on. It is nice to be able to skip over the talking head punditry of places like Court TV or any of the other mainstream media outlets and avoid the dumbing down of legal stories.
But aside from that one type of service TMZ provides, I really don't care about everything else they cover...there are way too many outlets for celebrity tittle-tattle and fluff out there.
The Vault
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Posted by: VDO Vault | July 22, 2007 at 10:51 AM
I guess my point is: TMZ is journalism, even if it's celeb journalism, in that they report, fact check. it's real.
Posted by: Anne Thompson | July 22, 2007 at 03:13 PM
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