The essence of Media is Eyeballs. Let me say that again, the essence of media is eyeballs.

I have always been interested in media. Newspapers, magazines, radio and television. I loved it all. Throughout my 20 year career in Media, I have had the opportunity to fulfill my childhood fantasies of dabbling in every area. After working for a local newspaper company in Brooklyn, I started my own monthly newspaper that lasted about 1 year, but I loved every issue. I had the opportunity to work at one of New York’s top radio stations as an ad executive and even created radio spots. (In Florida I had my own brokered radio show for a while as On-air personality) and when I purchased one of those big Panasonic Reporter SVHS camera I created segments for BCAT (Brooklyn Cable Access Television) public access television that everyone has the right to use. Then I became a DJ and that gave me a taste of being a rock star for 17 years, performing in front of audiences of hundreds to a couple of thousand.

With the exception of my DJing days, none of the other projects ever made me much money, but it gave me an opportunity to play out my childhood fantasies of being a media mogul.

 I think many of us fantasize when we are growing up of being a famous singer or actor or T.V personality, but very few of us ever really get the chance to play them out.

For as long as I could remember , media was the realm of the influential and powerful. Only the lucky few ever get a write up in a newspaper, or appear on a T.V. For everyone to see you, and when it happened it was a big deal in the old days. Executives at the T.V. stations and radio stations acted like royalty and treated someone trying to break into the business like crap. They had the power to reach millions of ears or eyeballs and you were just a wanna- be, unworthy to shine their shoes. Today they have lost a large part of their power because their audience has created communities of their own, and now they are on the other side of that door.

Today the power to influence and reach millions of people worldwide is in the hands of the people.

As a result of this new democratic form of influence, the traditional media channels are fighting for their lives. Reinvent yourselves or die. This recent Historic election was historic on more levels than just the fact that a black man won the white house. It is significant because for the first time 2 candidates, Barrack Obama and Ron Paul, raised more money and infiltrated the population better than the others through YouTube and other social networking sites. They become one of us and co-mingled directly with the masses, one on one. They have now set a precedent and you already see more and more politicians, celebrities and government agencies creating channels on YouTube to reach their audiences.

 Instead of the little guy clamoring to get a shot on their media, They are now clamoring to get on ours. Look all over Youtube and you will see stories of regular people who bypassed all traditional forms of celebrity building to create their own celebrity status and incomes as well, by being themselves and original.

The 15 year old Lucas Cruikshank, who created the character FRED on youtube makes over $100,000 a year in passive income from ad deals on his videos which generate over 6,000,000 viewers every week. Some of his videos have been viewed up to 50,000,000 times. That’s a lot of influence. Not to mention the annoying chocolate rain guy-Tay Zonday with his James Earl Jones thunderous voice, made all the more interesting by the fact that he weighs about 100 pounds and looks all of 12. There are many overnight nobodies that have found an audience and have a voice now thanks to Youtube.

I think what is happening is that people are tired of the overproduced. They yearn for images that are more in line with their reality, they want to be able to say, “Hey, I can do that.” Reality shows did the same thing to scripted television.

So today, ANYONE and I mean ANYONE can have their own television show, Newspaper, Magazine or Radio show online and make money, because unlike when I was trying to do it all years ago the traditional way, You can do it for FREE and you can actually have a significant audience to matter.