Michael Rosemblum has posted on his blog some of his insights into the new economy of solo video journalists producing content in the realm of broadcast television.

Michael is expounding upon Mark Cuban’s blog posting that states “Are content producers prepared to reduced production costs….by 88%?”

I respect Michael’s experience and his forward thinking response to this question and why it makes sense for the 21st century digital media age.

He responds with an ever resounding yes to Mr. Cuban’s question.

Michael states :

Content producers are indeed prepared to reduce production costs by 88% (or I would rather say by as much as 88%). Just not the content producers that Mark Cuban knows.

This is where the detractors of the solo vj paradigm like to pontificate about how all their experience justifies the inflated expenses associated with shooting tv news and production content.

Michael further on states that:

When I started to produce cable shows for Discovery, they paid about $250,000 an hour per show. The show is 44 minutes. At $250 per 44 minutes, the rate then was $5681.81 per minute. If we take 12% of that, (call it the Cuban Conversion), we arrive at $681 per minute for video produced.

That’s a decent rate no matter what the detractors who have readers believe.  For anyone who produces content in the solo video journalist paradigm, a five minute piece, billed out at the “Mark Cuban Conversion Rate” comes to $3405.00.  Depending on the experience of the shooter, this could take anywhere from a few hours to a full day or two to produce content.  With 2-3 assignments a month at that rate produces quite a comfortable income for the solo vj.  And you get to see your hard earned work compensated more than fairly.

The traditional way of shooting a project amounted to inflated invoicing along with a lack of control of the final product along with expensive production crews, expensive equipment and delays due to needing to ingest to professional edit bays.

So what does this new economic formula mean for those shooting video content now – specifically as a solo video content producer?

Well, it doesn’t look to good for those who are tied to the old economy of production – one in which the act of producing video seemed some kind of magical, difficult, secret, complex and expensive process.

Rosenblum is secure in his assessment when he states “It isn’t” any of those facets for producing video content.

I thought it was quite succinct of Rosenblum to close out his blog posting with the following:

… at Mark Cuban’s numbers, a half hour of video would cost a network about $20,000. Anyone out there with a laptop edit and camcorder who wants to sign up to produce a cable half hour for $20,000? How about a series at that rate?

Hands Down.

The business end of this emerging profession has a ways to go yet, but from what I have deduced so far, Mr. Rosenblum is about as visionary as it gets for this profession – and a big thorn in the side of the detractors trying to make us believe otherwise.

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