CNBCfix review: David Faber’s
‘Amazon Rising’ profile clearly
wasn’t on Jeff Bezos’ wish list
Posted: Monday, June 30, 2014
He didn't get the Big Man.
Nor did he get an online-enabled rags-to-riches story.
And, David Faber's otherwise pointed, candid and broad exploration of Amazon.com in CNBC's "Amazon Rising" lacks any reference to privacy — or the desecration of it.
Like any Faber production, "Rising" is quality television. Tightly written; no punches pulled. Viewers learn that Amazon generally takes a 15% cut from 3rd-party sellers and that one analyst thinks the company actually loses $5-$6 billion a year on inventorying and selling goods.
The problem is, Faber couldn't follow a successful blueprint. It's quite fair to compare "Rising" to Maria Bartiromo's "Inside the Mind of Google," a 2009 CNBC production that looks better and better by the day.
That program lacked a pressing news peg and spent too many minutes on Google's casual atmosphere. But it had 3 important things Faber did not:
♦ A high-ranking exec, then-CEO Eric Schmidt.
♦ A very likable small-business success story featuring Paul Bond Boots, which saw sales skyrocket from Google AdWords.
♦ A very important dialogue, with Schmidt, about privacy, in which Bartiromo reveals that Google holds search terms for 18 months.
Without Jeff Bezos on board, Faber's program launched with a low ceiling. It's the media equivalent of a hostile takeover bid. Given no company cooperation, Faber was compelled to assemble an impressive range of critics, from former executives to former warehouse employees to angry book publishers to a skeptical Wall Street analyst.
While their input is essential, "Rising" fails to fully grasp the other side of the equation, Amazon's enormous consumer popularity. Here is where a successful small-business profile would be appealing, someone who latched onto Amazon, made it big and has no regrets. The primary success story profiled, X Fire Paintball, contains an asterisk, albeit an interesting one, because it seems Amazon has cherry-picked X Fire's top products and begun selling them itself.
Faber ignores the obvious impact of Amazon's extraordinary pricing, and refund policy. Anecdotally, it seems it's difficult for an Amazon shopper, to use a crude term, to get screwed. Prices undercut bricks-and-mortar locations. Shipping is free for orders over $35. Refunds, even from 3rd-party sellers, are easily consummated. A few fans, Robin Tarkleson and Seth Hinrichs, do warn about the impulsive nature of "one-click" shopping.
While the show depicts a couple of happy Amazon customers in the form of remote Maine couple George and Robin Tarkleson, who get 3 Amazon deliveries a week, and photographer Seth Hinrichs, who has a Prime account, Faber never once questions if Amazon is 1) collecting more information than it should, and/or 2) is there a possibility that holding this information could be detrimental in any way.
Unlike Google, Amazon has your name, address and credit card number. It also has a permanent history of everything you've bought on the site and every review you've written, and presumably every search term you've typed in.
Brick-and-mortar stores accept credit cards too. But they haven't tracked which aisles you've walked down and wouldn't know which products you actually bought with cash.
Given the vast amounts of data collected by Amazon, it is for the viewer to judge whether the company's secrecy towards Faber should be considered a positive or negative.
So far, no one seems to complain. Which apparently is why Faber ignored the subject.
The visuals are concentrated among Amazon fulfillment centers, interviews in multiple locations with former employees and critics, and file footage of Jeff Bezos. It is not surprising that Amazon packages are delivered to a rural Maine Island, Matinicus, but because this footage is the most interesting, Faber and his editors probably correctly choose to feature the Tarklesons (below) at the top of the program.
It's notable that books are on the back burner of this program. Faber saves the raging debate between publishers and Amazon for the latter moments and doesn't delve into the details, except to say that Hachette and its aces such as James Patterson aren't exactly thrilled.
Former employee Randall Miller reveals that publishers who refused to offer deeper discounts were punished with lower profiles in Amazon's "Pay to Play" program, which was renamed "Vendor Realignment."
Faber never mentions what figures to be one of Amazon's greatest weapons, gift cards, how many are sold and how much is actually redeemed.
He also doesn't guess at ranking Amazon's sales by category, for example, do shoes do better than laundry detergent.
Bottom line? No Bezos. He undoubtedly caught the premiere on Sunday, June 29. Faber needed him to be on the show, not watching it. This should've been a win-win; the company providing access to some of its production in exchange for soundbites about new products and Web features. Without a scoop, Faber has little beyond revisiting long-running critical headlines. His vigorous production will still play on holidays, evenings and weekends for CNBC for a couple years. But lacking company cooperation, "Amazon Rising" is at a notable deficit to other excellent CNBC profiles of Costco, McDonald's and Google, who on some level opened the doors.
Faber's Amazon is rather ruthless. You may choose to consider that during your next order of Free Super Saver Shipping, or not.
"Amazon Rising" (2014)
Featuring: George and Robin Tarkleson, Jeff Bezos, Seth Hinrichs, Dave Selinger, Nadia Shouraboura, Brad Stone, John Rossman, Randy Miller, Randall Miller, Ted Jorgensen, Shel Kaphan, Stephen Herbert, Dennis Johnson, David Godine, James Patterson, James Marcus, Sucharita Mulpuru
Reported by: David Faber
Senior executive producer: Mitch Weitzner
Senior producer: Wally Griffith
Producers: Deborah Camiel, Na Eng
Associate producer: Michael Beyman
Lead editor: Patrick Ahearn
Editors: Rich Korn, Allison E. Stedman, Steve Trevisan