Wait...What is Press Tour, Exactly?

That's a question people ask every summer -- and this time, even the folks attending the 14-day Television Critics Association summer shindig are starting to mull it over, too.

In layman's terms, Press Tour is part of the pre-season game for broadcast networks and cable channels. There's a lot of programming premiering from now through October, and every network wants professional TV viewers to write about it somewhere. Doesn't matter if the review is good or bad, it's all free promotion.

That is why they haul out a small galaxy of stars, experts of every stripe, producers, directors and writers to chat with about 200 critics and reporters who cover television in hotel ballrooms cold enough to prevent glaciers from melting. A little ink -- or, considering the migration of TV chatter online, blog type -- can go a long way for a new cable show trying to plant its flag on a landscape filled with scores of competitors. (This is especially true now, at the first Tour in a year; January's Press Tour was canceled due to the continuing strike by the Writers Guild of America.)

But at a time when so-called new media is cutting into the revenue streams of traditional platforms such as newspapers and magazines and eating away at the television audience, and under the looming threat of a strike by SAG, there has been quite a bit of whispering about the future of Press Tour.

In Ray Richmond's Hollywood Reporter column, he points out that the combination of newspapers purging critics and the rise of "lightweight" blogs could spell the doom of the Tour.

If that happens, Richmond writes, "the consensus is that the greatest casualties stand to be the levels of access and information that paint coverage of the TV industry.

"That's really the most galling part of this equation," he continues. "It isn't about the evolution that's come to define newsgathering in the new millennium; it's that those who crave cogent, intelligent discussion have fewer and fewer places to turn. If that comes across as elitist, it may be because the Internet has served to lull us into confusing superficiality with insight and enlightenment."

There are a couple of reactions someone in my position can't help having to Richmond's opinion, one most TCA members had the luxury of hewing to a couple of years ago. On some level, he's right. But the fact of the matter is, the Internet is where the worlds of those who write about television and those who make it are migrating.

The same people who started those stimulating, profound discussions about this powerful medium -- many of them critics who as Richmond points out, were dropped by their newspapers like rotten tomatoes -- are making the transition from dead tree pulp to the living and evolving online world. And many of the TV websites at which Richmond seems to be shaking his head are, in the larger scheme of things, toddlers. They'll mature and grow, and if you have faith, they'll take the discussion in vibrant and interesting directions.

Then again, as a critic who left the world of newspapers the Internet, I'll admit I can't help being biased. I'm one of those bloggers that two years ago I, too, would have been tsk-tsking from a distance. Combine that with my enthusiasm for this thing we call Press Tour, where we get to hobnob with the people who make our favorite shows, and I can't help but have hope.

Besides, this is summer TCA. This is where we get to see second and third acts before the curtain rises (see: VH1's "The Cho Show") and catch actors and actresses we kind of, sort of recognize from any number of canceled series before they become household names (see: "Gossip Girl's" Penn Badgley). This is where we get a sense of whether something we so desperately want to work will, or if a pilot that makes us cringe actually has a shot at being a hit. It has happened before and certainly will again.

That's what summer Press Tour is, in case you were wondering. Here's hoping you stick with me for the fun parts.
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