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Cooke Pictures is now Cooke Media Group
In 1991 my wife Kathleen and I launched our media production and consulting company, Cooke Pictures. In those days, TV and film production was expensive, and few organizations could own their own...
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Preaching on Television? It’s More Effective Than You Think
When I started working in television, preachers and preaching were about the only thing on Christian TV. My first boss in the business, Oral Roberts, was a pioneer because we were producing prime time...
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Why You Should Read the Book “The Last TV Evangelist”
It’s been out a few years now, but my book “The Last TV Evangelist: Why the Next Generation Couldn’t Care Less About Religious Media (And Why it Matters)” keeps popping up. Maybe it was prophetic, but...
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Pastors: Why You Shouldn’t Be Like Joel Osteen
I met Joel Osteen many years ago when he asked me to direct a series of TV specials featuring his father, Pastor John Osteen. We became friends, and when his dad passed away and Joel became pastor of...
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The Power of a Local Church’s TV Broadcast
We see many churches on national television these days, and for pastors who feel they have a message beyond their own communities, I’m all for reaching out through TV. In a media driven culture, I’m...
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Ten Ways to Cultivate Donors For Your Nonprofit Organization
A few years ago while speaking at the African Christian Broadcasting Conference in South Africa, I asked Mary Hutchinson who founded a donor development firm to submit a guest post on a topic that...
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Viewer Fatigue: Getting Your Audience to Respond
If your advertising or media programming hasn’t been getting a response lately, the first place you should look is viewer fatigue. In other words, is the audience simply tired of seeing what you’re...
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Facing the Canon with J John
My long time friend J John is one of the most powerful, compelling, and hilarious speakers I know. Based in the United Kingdom, he has an amazing ministry with a global reach. Recently he broadcast a...
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The 20th Anniversary of “Starting Over”
One thing that slipped by without my noticing a couple of years ago was the 20th anniversary of a TV special we produced for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association called “Starting Over.” Back then...
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This is the Moment for Christian Broadcasters to Rise Up
Over the last month, we’ve focused so much on helping churches live stream through the lockdown, that I’ve hardly spent any time talking about Christian broadcasting. However, the lockdown is having a...
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Live Streaming Skills We Can Learn from TV Evangelists
Remember all those reasons people used to criticize TV evangelists? Particularly in the 1980’s and 1990’s, using television for evangelism generated massive audiences, but many were considered...
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As Secular TV Pulls Back, Is Christian TV Ready to Make an Impact?
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that “Big advertisers from General Motors Co. to PepsiCo Inc. to General Mills Inc. are seeking to walk back spending commitments they made to broadcast and cable...
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