Merlyn on Media

September 4, 2015 | Merlyn Reineke

Act Now to Insist FCC Ensure Cable Operators Support Local PEGs

This could be the biggest threat to public access in history. The cable television industry is facing huge competition, not just from the likes of DirecTV but from rapidly-deploying new technologies that threaten to suck customers away in droves. Subscribers are ‘cutting the cord’, dumping their cable TV packages and looking for other news & […]

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June 15, 2015 | Merlyn Reineke

Digital Disruption and the Loss of the Gazette

No one can replace the Gazette. With the sudden announcement that the Montgomery County’s newspaper of record will print its last edition this week, there has been an understandable amount of shock and loss. The skilled staff of nearly 70 individuals (greatly downsized over the years of nearly-constant cutbacks) is the biggest loss of all. […]

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October 26, 2014 | Merlyn Reineke

Don’t Sit on the Sidelines on November 4th

I was speaking recently with someone in-the-know about projections for voter turnout. She told me that Montgomery County may be heading for a record-low on November 4th… maybe as few as 12% of registered voters heading to the polls in this general election. That’s abysmal, especially for a county as well educated and connected as […]

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September 16, 2014 | Merlyn Reineke

Merlyn Reineke

Is Montgomery County No Longer a Democracy?

This week’s hearing regarding public campaign financing brings to light the frustration many of us feel about growing voter apathy in Montgomery County. During the June primaries, Montgomery County had the lowest voter turnout of any county in the state… just over 16%. Sure, it was just a primary in an off-season election, and there […]

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June 3, 2014 | Merlyn Reineke

photo redskins field

The Redskins, Twitter, and When Good Intentions Go Bad

There’s an old saying that goes: ‘Don’t’ pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel’. Decades ago, that meant you didn’t cross swords with your local newspaper. Today, social media has replaced print as the way to generate power through large followings. The Washington Redskins organization had that large following, but saw […]

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May 23, 2014 | Merlyn Reineke

In Praise of DirecTV

The announcement this week of the proposed takeover of DirecTV by AT&T reminded me of one of the great ‘increasing the size of the pie’ business lessons I once learned… not in a classroom, but in a high-rise overlooking LAX. When I worked at PBS, one of my main responsibilities was working with the direct […]

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May 12, 2014 | Merlyn Reineke

Kids, Soccer and Where to Find Your Business Opportunities

Have you ever watched a little kids’ soccer game? When they’re first starting out, the kids chase around the ball like some two legged school of fish. It’s hilarious to watch this mass of a dozen kids follow the ball across the field. My youngest son Alexander was very much like this when he first […]

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April 20, 2014 | Merlyn Reineke

photo LDS Temple in Kensington

Why Our ‘Day’ Is Different

So what makes OUR ‘Day in the Life’ so special? Unless you’ve been hiding out somewhere, you’ve probably heard that next Tuesday April 22nd marks the 2nd annual ‘A Day in the Life of Montgomery County’. It’s a 24-hour snapshot of the people & places that make Montgomery County Maryland so interesting. We’re encouraging every […]

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April 14, 2014 | Merlyn Reineke

Do What You Want… and the (Best) Customers Will Follow

There’s a radio station in Baltimore that doesn’t want their listeners to contact them. No phone calls, no requests, no nothing. In an age of social media connectivity of all kinds, that’s unheard of. Media companies and other consumer-facing organizations are dying to connect with you in every conceivable way: Like Us, Follow Us, Vulcan […]

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April 3, 2014 | Merlyn Reineke

Lost Subs, Crowdsourcing & the Promise of Open Government

On May 22, 1968, the nuclear submarine USS Scorpion disappeared without a trace somewhere in the North Atlantic. The U.S. Navy conducted an extensive search based on its last known whereabouts, but with no luck. With no options available, the U.S. government decided to take an unusual approach by ‘crowdsourcing’ the search for the submarine […]

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