I was fortunate to be in the audience at Fox Television Studios in Sydney last night for the taping of Chelsea Lately, a hit US late night talk show. Star Chelsea Handler, and a team of comedians, writers and producers have been in Sydney for a week taping shows. Last night’s was the last for this Australian trip.
Watching the show being produced was a hoot, an absolute guilty pleasure. Yes, I am a fan, my photo with her is a trophy I’ll keep.
After the show I shared a cab back to the city with someone who had just been interviewed on a Sky Business Channel program and we got talking about newsagents, the challenges of print media – especially newspapers, competition, Australia Post and the economy. It was a fascinating discussion with a business analyst who can look at the channel without the emotional and other overheads we often bring to a discussion about our future. It reinforced the importance of us reinventing ourselves.
On the flight back to Melbourne I found myself thinking about Chelsea Lately taping and the discussion in the cab afterwards.
Chelsea Handler and her team have created a new and very successful genre of TV show out of the decades old tonight show format. Their reinvention has found a new audience while also bringing along some of the older audience for the ride. We need to do the same thing. We need to reinvent our model to find new customers while bringing older customers with us. We need to create a retail experience which is relevant to today’s audience.
While some newsagents and marketing groups are doing this, not enough of our channel is engaged. Newsagents who do the same in 2010 that has been done in their businesses for decades will miss opportunities. There is a new audience out there and we need to evolve our offer to find them. We start this by being business people and not acting as superannuation guardians.
Chelsea Handler takes risks with her show. We should do the same with our newsagencies. In among these risks lie ideas which will bring great success.
The Chelsea Lately show is on E! Network on Foxtel at 10:30pm weeknights.
sorry but which one is Chelsea
Far left.