In 1970, when Walter Cronkite was narrating current events for the United States, he was 54 years old. Hitchcock made his last film when he was 77.
When there’s a limited number of slots for narrators to fill, they can stick around for a long time.
One of the overlooked cultural shifts of our time is that by dramatically expanding the number of slots (and removing the gatekeepers) we skipped twenty or thirty years. Now, there are writers, pundits, video stars and producers who aren’t being asked to wait two decades to have a voice.
Existing media (like traditional book publishing or network TV) will hold on to proven voices for as long as it can, but new media (which now captures far more attention) has no mechanism for that.
If it seems like it’s happening all at once, compared to history, it is.
PS the big finale of the GOODBIDS auction launch week is ready. Get two Taylor Swift tickets (in Amsterdam in July) plus a travel budget. To benefit charity: water.