The figurative hand-wringing and moaning has become incessant. There are just not enough Viewers or Listeners or Readers or possibly Imbibers-by-Osmosis of all sorts of Content, with that dramatic capital C.
Well, one obvious solution is to produce Better content - with a capital B. And one way to do that is by stopping the egregious neglect of the group of Content Imbibers who most feel they've been badly neglected - the more than 2 in 5 of us - soon to rise to nearly 1 in 2 of us - who make up the "Gray Population" age 50 and over.
We Baby Boomers - now in our 50s and 60s - are especially miffed at our recent neglect by the Gods of Media, because we've been influential within Media realms pretty much since we were born - as creators, as initiators, and as consumers of Media in all its forms.
Boomers were the first generation to have television screens as our close companions since babyhood.
We embraced the Golden Age of Cinema our parents' generation - give them the credit - had created. And we transformed and modernized movies in our turn.
We revolutionized popular music and initiated the age of radio-on-the-go.
And although we are not yet thrilled about some very recent "improvements" in Media technology - for example, we tend to think watching video on little bitty smartphone screens kills the eyesight - we're as tech-savvy as any generation in history, inventors and early initiators of Modern Media as we know it today.
Don't Hate Us Because We're Creative
If Boomers (people aged 51-69) and the many Americans older than Boomers (those age 70 and older) no longer contribute as much as we once (recently) did to American Media of all kinds, it has nothing whatsoever to do with our knowledge - ever-growing! - our experience - superb! - or our general level of creative talent - better than ever!
No, it has to do, as we've related in several previous stories, with economic transformations that have demonstrably not succeeded and which continue to harm our society, our politics, our economy, and our culture.
Because recent governments have been unable to create many additional jobs in an absolute sense, they've tried to "handle" this lack of growth by unceremoniously removing workers who've passed the imaginary Gray Maginot Line we've placed at age 50 - or in many cases, even lower - subsequently "repackaging" these jobs as "new" ones and handing them over to younger workers or a few other favored constituencies.
But that's politics, while this sequence of stories is about business solutions.
The current reality is that there is now a humongous talent pool of Creatives over age 50, in Los Angeles, in New York, in Washington, and all around the country, many of whom are hurting for cash, hurting for productive work, and - perhaps most of all - hurting for renewed recognition as the experienced and educated and sophisticated and immensely talented people they still very much are.
Content Needed, Content Producers Looking For Work - Sounds Like a Great Match to Me!
Although it seems 100 percent logical to try to match the Content one presents with the Audience one needs to attract, in America, we've lagged the rest of the world in producing solid and interesting and compelling Content those over 50 will want to consume.
Our economic "Out with the Mature, in with the Kids" policies have prevailed within our Creative industries, as well as within our economy as a whole.
At last, though, there seems to be some recognition that things need to change, particularly in areas like "traditional" - i.e. non-Internet-based - television, which Americans under age 50 are watching less of, while Americans over age 50 are consistently watching more.
What we're proposing is one way to create and package and market good Content produced by and for Boomers and others over 50: Collective "shops" of various kinds, guided by, staffed by, and driven by the now-underutilized talent pool of Creatives who've been sitting on the sidelines itching to participate in viable Media projects.
True, many leading lights in the realms of both U.S. television and U.S. film - actors, directors, producers - have set up their own studios or production houses over the past few decades, focused on projects in which they themselves are the major contributors or in which they play a key supervisory role. And as these leading lights have themselves aged and become part of the Gray Population, their sponsored projects have tended to "skew older" in terms of both Content and participants.
But we are not aware of many - perhaps any - studios or production houses specifically identifying themselves as creators and purveyors of Content for Boomers and other Grays. And we think there should be such entities.
Going a step further, we think at least some new studios and production houses geared to Gray Content could be established by groups of older Creatives themselves, even without the seal of approval of an over-50 Megastar actor, director, or producer.
Whether based in specific locations, with participants under one roof, or based digitally, with Creatives in various locales working together via remote technology, we'd love to see brain trusts of highly-experienced but under-employed writers, producers, and other Creatives cobbled together and becoming active to create quality Content - conventional television, webcasts, films, theater, music productions, and spectacles of all sorts - with stories and themes appealing to audiences over age 50, while cast, crew, and others involved were also heavily skewed to participation by Boomers and other Grays.
Purely as a personal brainstorming exercise, the next story in this sequence will offer 20 ideas for future television shows that Boomer Creative Collectives might want to work on.
I hope many Readers will come up with their own ideas and that they will work - if they are able - towards making Creative Collectives for Boomers and other Grays a reality in the not-very-distant future.
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