Friday, October 10, 2008

Who's Going to Kiss the Frog Now?

A good friend publishing consultant and thinker James Lichtenberg once related that publishing was similar to two frogs mating. They produce thousands of spawn, which turns into hundreds of tadpoles, who eventually become tens of baby frogs swimming around avoiding their many predators. Finally, a mere handful made it to the bank and came ashore. One is kissed by Ophra and is turned into a ‘Prince’. The moral being that you needed the thousands to get to the best seller and predicting them is often very difficult.

We could help reminding ourselves of the story when we read that Richard and Judy's new show on digital channel Watch attracted an average audience of 100,000 viewers, even with the repat figures rising to 143,000. This is a far cry from the 1.5 million viewers who watched their last show on primetime Channel 4 and it begs the question whether the UK has lost its ‘Ophra’.

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