Jeffrey Wells came to my attention around five years ago when I was talking with a Hollywood studio publicist about bloggers who were having an impact on entertainment journalism. The publicist cited a number of names including Wells’, about whom he added, “He scares me a little bit.”
“Why’s that?” I asked, immediately more interested in this Wells dude than in the others the publicist listed.
“You never know what he’s going to write. He can’t be controlled,” the publicist said.
Wow. Now I was really interested. A few high profile critics aside, entertainment journalists had been, historically, notorious shills for studios and PR agencies, faithfully adding spin to the narratives they were sold. This ensured them steady access to the all-important star interviews, along with lots of free meals, expenses-paid junkets, and invitations to review screenings and the occasional gala premiere.
That a player like Wells dared to leave this comfort zone said a couple of things. First, the guy had to have guts, and confidence in his game. Second, entertainment journalism, like all journalism, was changing. The very fact that my friend, the publicist, was forced to confront his concern about a blogger with a mind of his own was a revolution of sorts. Very soon after speaking with the publicist, I took a look looked at Jeffrey Wells’ site, Hollywood Elsewhere, for the first time, and haven’t really looked away since.
Nothing of importance in the film business goes unobserved by Wells. He is plugged into its zeitgeist. His well-written commentary, his obvious passion for the cinema, the reliable frequency of his posts, and the broad spectrum of sources he cites, make Hollywood Elsewhere a singular visit. The hilariously-neurotic personal experiences he writes about and the commentary by a smart, often-vicious pack of readers are the icing on the cake.
I don’t work in the entertainment business any more, so I don’t need a lot of industry chatter, what I find useful is to get an early heads-up on films that can impact the industry, its key players, the marketplace, and popular culture. Wells knows how to separate the story from the hype. While I don’t always agree with his opinions or his perspective, they are always solid. A reader can triangulate a position, a point of view, from them.
Jeffrey Wells is the GameChanger of the Month for October because he practices fundamentals that journalists and businesspeople in general can use to succeed in any changing business environment:
Cause change. It is always better to change the game of your own volition than to have your game changed against your will by forces beyond your control. Wells left the melting icepack of print journalism for the expanding tundra of online media before the people left on the icepack began pushing one another off like they are today.
Prepare to struggle. The path to any breakthrough is unpaved. Gamechanging does not guarantee an easy road to fame and fortune. It is, rather, a methodical series of steps taken in order to learn, adapt, and discover new avenues for productivity. Hollywood Elsewhere struggled early. At one point Wells had to solicit donations from his readers to keep the site alive. It now seems on healthier footing financially, but Wells has a penchant for drama, so you never know what kind of bind he’s getting himself into just so we can all enjoy watching him work his way out of it.
Have a point of view. Wells’ take on the business isn’t the fanboy gush of Ain’t It Cool News, or the studio commissary talk you get from Nikki Finke, it’s uniquely his own. Visiting HE is like sitting in on conversations about films and current events, and panel discussions with lots of film clips at a neverending film festival with Wells as the lead moderator. If you dig movies like I do, this is invariably a good experience.
Embrace distributed narratives. In the networked world, narratives are distributed, never piped down a single channel to their audience. In addition to the overlapping nature of the conversations between the blogger and his readers, Hollywood Elsewhere’s narratives transpire on multiple media platforms. They link out to other journalists and web sites. They also unfold differently over time. Some of the site’s narratives may consist of a single post; others may continue for a year or more.
In the Networked World, you cannot control the conversation between brand and audience. The objective, whether you’re a one-person shop like Hollywood Elsewhere or a behemoth brand like Disney, is to add to the conversation.
Tags: Branding, Change, Distributed Narratives, Entertainment, Films, GameChanger of the Month, Harry Knowles, Hollywood Elsewhwere, Jeffrey Wells, Journalism, Nikki Finke, October 2009, Point of View, Struggle