Creative destruction: Apple & Univision. Part 2

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc etc  /  LMMiami.com

“Courage is always better”

Jorge Luis Borges

• Apple is, allegedly, about to launch its new lineup of iPhones with one notable absence among its functionalities: the audio jack will, according to rumors, be discontinued.
• Yeah, say adiós to the little hole that connects your headphones to your device.
• Another of the bold disruptive moves that has made the Cupertino giant a sexy tech darling and global corporate leader.
• Another surprise to reinvent the game, attract the world’s attention and generate buzz.
• Speaking of bold moves and surprises that make people talk, who wasn’t taken aback when, a year or so ago, Univision terminated its decades-old, money-printing relationship with Mr. Mario Kreutzberger, aka Don Francisco?
• Whether it was a good decision or not remains to be determined (Telemundo rushed in to unroll the red carpet for him ipso facto).
• One thing is certain: it took some cojones to let DonFran go.
• Next thing you know, a few months later, Univision acquired The Onion.
• AND consolidated its control over not-too-successful yet worth rooting for Fusion.
• As per recent reports, Univision has now taken over Gawker Media, one of the most innovative and idiosyncratic media outlets in the planet. *
• If you ask me, The Onion and Gawker possibly have the best writing staffs in the digital world.
• Clever, wildly witty, feisty, belligerent, subversive, down & dirty, unruly, gonzo.
• Better than anything else out there.
• Definitely two of my favorite media brands in ‘Merica.
• Is it me or all of the newly acquired Univision subsidiaries, for some reason, tend to be clearly left leaning?
• Well, Haim Saban’s proclivity to support the Democratic Party both politically and financially is no secret.
• It’s still kinda funny though to see how Fusion goes out of its way to be an unFox (another one): a repository of tree-hugging, bleeding-heart, vegan, pouting, preachy hispsterism**.
• Lemme tell you, from a market share POV, I think it makes all the sense in the world.
• Oddly enough, here in America the best satirists are liberals whereas in the UK the opposite is true. ***
• But back to UVN’s acquisition strategy.
• Yes, I call it UVN instead of UCI cuz I I’m a total snob who likes to use ticker symbols to refer to companies.
• Plus I don’t quite like the UCI moniker, an acronym that kinda sounds like the notorious Israeli-made submachine gun movie gangsters of Latin ethnicity are partial too.
• In any case, a good friend of mine, a typical arm chair loser, recently told me “there’s no rhyme or reason in Univision’s shopping spree.” ****
• WTF?
• There’s all the rhyme and reason in the world!
• See, Univision is plenty relevant but it ain’t cool.
• It desperately needs to regain its edge at a moment in our culture when language and surgically enhanced weather girls bursting at the seams do not give anyone an edge anymore.
• It has a captive mature audience that might have plateaued and needs recruitment among new demographics.
• Moreover, to sound all the alarms, it lost the rights to broadcast the 2018 & 2022 World Cups, now controversially secured by its deep-pocketed nemesis NBC Telemundo. *****
• It is fighting for its long term survival.
• Duh.
• It will have no choice other than to grow a pair and venture into uncharted territory.
• Hence its shopping spree.
• And hence its upcoming IPO.
• Can it fail?
• Certainly.
• Look at Marissa Mayer’s shopping spree at the helm of YHOO (that’s Yahoo! for you non stock exchange speculators) and the regretful way it ended.
• Univision, I’m guessing here, eventually might need to be run by a charismatic despot with a big ego and a bigger vision.
• Is Randy Falco that person?
• Why not.
• Is Isaac Lee?
• Sure, who knows.
• However, not unlike you garden variety Latin American strongman/strongwoman, this charismatic dictator will need to accumulate enormous power to bring his/her plans to fruition.
• The kind of boardroom AND executive stature that, usually, only comes with a controlling stake of ownership (eg; Rupert Murdoch, Sumner Redstone and assorted moguls who actually run the companies they themselves founded).
• In any case, the boat will be a’rocking.
• Divisions will be restructured.
• Costs will be cut.
• More people will possibly be let go (yes, more, sorry, don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger).
• Speaking of which, a LOT of folks in our industry are complaining that Latinos are taking a backseat in the mothership’s C-Suite, rank & file.
• A source described it to me as “UVN is being colonized by gringos”.
• Well yes, diversity can be a double-edged sword, folks.
• It certainly cuts both ways.
• Who’s to blame for these cuts?
• Everyone and no one.
• In corporate America these are collegial decisions.
• The kind of collegial decisions that will end when & if a dictator takes over.
• Or not.
• Sure, after the IPO it might become more collegial and consensual than ever.
• In other words, mired in red tape, gridlock and factious internecine intrigue.
• Or not.
• Correct me if I’m wrong but Univision was never known for being wildly profitable.
• Quite the contrary.
• Hey, in that rarefied atmosphere it is not necessarily a bad thing.
• It means that its management has had the wherewithal and autonomy -aka cojones- to not bow sheepishly under Wall Street’s lash.
• I can respect that.
• But pretty soon Wall street will be breathing down its neck again.
• We’ll see.
• So stay tuned for the coming attraction: UVN’s imminent IPO.
• Messrs. Saban, Azcárraga, Falco, Lee et al (not necessarily in that order) have my full support.
• I don’t know about you, but I’m buying in.
• Sure, it will be a roller coaster ride.
• Big time.
• But the big UVN will come out on top.
• It is too big to fail.
• Financially, demographically AND politically.
• Not unlike GM or Chrysler a decade ago.
• It would be in no one’s best interest to have only one monopolistic US Hispanic media outlet.
• Just sayin’.
• See, Univision in many ways is like the Catholic Church.
• At times it can make you cringe in embarrassment.
• Next thing you know you it makes you proud to be a Hispanic American.
• Either way, it is our church and we gotta fight for it.

*Read more about Gawker Media’s rocky road to Univision’s lap here:
 http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/08/did-i-kill-gawker.html?mid=twitter-share-selectall
And here:
http://adage.com/article/media/mind-peter-thiel-gawker-killed/305550/
**Hispster: a portmanteau to describe a Hispanic hipster.
***In the UK´s political spectrum, the right wing exhibits the best Fleet Street mischief & pyrotechnics. If you want to get a chuckle, I strongly recommend you read conservative Limey tabloids and not so tabloids such as The Sun, The Times, The Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard. The left leaning ones on the other hand, e.g. the Guardian, despite their unquestionable journalistic integrity, are insufferably self-righteous, humorless and sanctimonious.
****Well, he’s not really a loser. He’s just a Monday morning QB. In fact he’s a quite successful careerist who holds a cushy C-Suite job at a multinational corporation. But you catch my drift.
***** Another FIFA can of worms? Judge for yourself: “We were not invited to participate in the process and find it curious that FIFA would think keeping the No. 1 Hispanic media company in the U.S. out of a competitive bidding process is good for the growth of soccer in the U.S.,” Univision said. Ouch! Read more here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/2015/02/13/espn-univision-angry-at-fifa-no-bid-sale-of-us-wcup-rights/23387205/