Various potential scenarios for TCM’s future.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav loves Turner Classic Movies (best known as TCM) so much that he’s making deep cuts in its key staff and re-appointing a previous head of the channel.

Here are some possible aftereffects:

1. No more TCM Film Festival.  It’s a pricey annual diversion for a subset of the channel’s fanbase.  But the festival, through its restoration premieres and star/director appearances, generates a lot of value and goodwill.  Zaslav may consider it a waste of time and resources.  And if the festival goes, expect huge and passionate pushback.

2.  No more TCM Cruises.  Repeat the above pricey annual diversion statement.  But this likely wouldn’t spark outrage on the level of ending the film festival.

3. No more TCM branding—books, wines, etc.

4. Fewer hosts.  Guessing Zaslav is bottom-line fixated enough to see Eddie Muller’s film noir showings and Jacqueline Stewart’s Sunday night silent films as nonessential programming to be discarded for more showings of familiar fare (Cary Grant, 1940s Humphrey Bogart, Doris Day, 1950s William Holden, Audrey Hepburn).  The host rotation of Ben/Dave/Alicia should be safe.

5. Moving from cable to exclusive online app.

6. Moving from cable to expanded curation niche subset of Max.

Let’s find out (with trepidation) what Zaslav chooses to do next.

Borders Books cut-cut-cutting DVDs and CDs from stores.

If you wander into a Borders Bookstore (as I did yesterday), you'll see red-tagged 30% discounts on a number of CDs and DVDs.
[UPDATE 3/23/09: I just received a standard customer e-mail from Borders which indicates that this sale isn't happening in certain cities such as NYC and San Francisco.]

Apparently, the chain is delivering on its desire to cut CD/DVD space by 70% (as was recently written about in ROLLING STONE).
[UPDATE 3/26/09: A story here confirms this: http://www.switched.com/2009/03/26/borders-to-quit-selling-cds-and-dvds/?icid=mainhtmlws-maindl4link5http%3A%2F%2Fwww.switched.com%2F2009%2F03%2F26%2Fborders-to-quit-selling-cds-and-dvds%2F]

Given Borders' continued commitment to keeping audiovisual content priced as high as possible (except for sales on older catalog product), one shouldn't be surprised that the available stock will be trimmed.

For the casual customer, this means remaining items will likely consist of what the chain predetermines as "best-selling". And the young staff will be losing their voices repeating the mantra: "We don't carry that in our store. We can special order it--or you can just go on our website."

It's easy to make a paranoid jump (given the company's financial state: http://www.borders.com/online/store/PartnerSiteInvestorsView) that entire sections of books may be next.

Poetry, perhaps?

Re the anger at greedy corporate execs--it won't do much good.

I liked this column by Maureen Dowd that appears in today's NEW YORK TIMES: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/opinion/01dowd.html?_r=2

And it is rather pitiful that the corporate/Wall Street CEOs/majordomos are hunkering down, determined to hang on to what they feel are hard-won perks (lavish expense accounts, fit-for-a-monarch living and working quarters, superplush personal jets--not to forget multimegamillions of parting gifts in cash/stock options) while the public gets poor products, abysmal customer service and, in certain cases, going-out-of-business sales to digest.

[UPDATE 2/3/09: Wells Fargo, after taking over Wachovia and receiving bailout money, plans a lavish employee party in Las Vegas: http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/wells-fargo-another-bailed-out-firm/327746]

[UPDATE 2/4/09: Wells Fargo, after an outcry of protest, canceled the party: http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/wells-fargo-another-bailed-out-firm/327746?icid=200100397x1218250358x1201186513]

Recently, I read a laudatory profile of Barney Frank in THE NEW YORKER. Frank optimistically predicted an economic recovery by 2010 (presumably before the midterm elections).

If such a recovery takes place on Frank's schedule, I'm assuming that America will return to doing business in the same old ways it did prior to the Wall Street meltdown of this past September.

And, once again, cretins like Jack "GE" Welch will feel comfortable enough to spout tough-guy downsizing palaver in books and over the airwaves.