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Ola Ray and the immaculately dressed, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson’s death prompted an onslaught of memorial media coverage arguably not seen since Princess Diana’s passing in 1997 or Elvis Presley’s in 1977.
But when the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll died 32 years ago this August, the event was chronicled by only three broadcast networks, and the music industry had no digital downloads or SoundScan. Now the abundance of media platforms makes the King of Pop’s death bigger in scope, and it’s responsible for big boosts to three media players — TMZ, BET and iTunes.
Scoop of the century
TMZ got the celebrity news break of the year when it was the first to report Mr. Jackson’s death June 25, hours before news organizations such as the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and CNN could even confirm. The celeb-gossip site, a joint venture between AOL and Warner Bros.’ TV arm, Telepictures, benefited mightily from not only breaking the news but also from being the source cited by all other traditional news outlets in their reports. The site reported a 33% lift in unique visitors over an average day, breaking the traffic record last set the day that news broke about Chris Brown assaulting Rihanna; June became a record month for TMZ in the process.
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