By Steve Kabelowsky Contributing Columnist Published Dec 05, 2014 at 3:09 PM

Do you have talent?

It’s a loaded question as most people have their own sense of what "talent" means. The producers of "America’s Got Talent" want to see whatever it means … and want people from the Milwaukee market to take them up on the opportunity to win a slot on the show.

Registration for open call cities is now open, with online auditions continuing through March 2015. The closest open call for Wisconsin will be a casting event in Chicago on Jan. 24-25.

With celebrity judges Howie Mandel, Mel B, Heidi Klum and Howard Stern, along with host Nick Cannon, "America's Got Talent" on NBC remained the No. 1 summer show in total viewers for a ninth year. For the first time in the show’s history, America chose a magician as its favorite act – season nine winner Mat Franco, who recently headlined the "America’s Got Talent Live" stage show in Las Vegas.

"We are really excited to kick off season 10 in some of the most incredible cities n the nation and can’t wait to see what this year brings," said executive producer Jason Raff. "Celebrating a decade of talent, this next round of auditions is destined to bring us acts unlike anything we’ve seen before."

Simon Cowell, Sam Donnelly, Jason Raff, Trish Kinane and Richard Wallace are the executive producers of "America’s Got Talent," the only TV show where acts of any age and any talent can compete in front of a nationwide audience.

For more information on audition cities and venues, the audition process and tips, or to submit an online video audition for season 10, see she show's website.

MADOFF FILM: In a two-week event, Al Jazeera America explores the inner workings of Bernard L. Madoff, one of the largest financial criminals. The documentary "In God We Trust" will air at 8 p.m. Dec. 7 and 8 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 14.

A story built upon lies, "In God We Trust" takes an in-depth look at the Madoff crime on the sixth anniversary of his arrest. The film chronicles the journey of Eleanor Squillari, a woman who went to work every day believing she was working for a great company and a great man.  As Madoff’s secretary, she never imagined he was perpetrating a huge financial crime.

"In God We Trust," which premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, examines how Squillari unwittingly participated in the massive Ponzi scheme.

READING INSIGHT: October was a huge month for media sites, according to comScore. More than 166 million people in the U.S. read newspaper content posted on digital platforms according to the Newspaper Association of America. The majority of the growth came from the use of mobile devices from women 18-24 and men 25-34.

As business leaders may appreciate the good content news, advertising revenues for newspapers are still down. Online digital ad sales grew slightly year-over-year, but only account for 14.5 percent of a paper’s overall revenue. According to numbers released by the NAA in the last 10 years, revenue has dropped 52.2 percent from $49.4 billion in 2005 to $23.6 billion in 2013 (the most recent numbers available).

Locally, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Journal Group made a deal with Scripps, spinning off TV and radio stations, and picking up a couple of other papers on the way. The best part of the deal for the Journal was the elimination of debt. However, as paywalls and online revenues slowly grow, the business owners have to live in the reality of smaller budgets, less readers and a technological landscape not supporting the old model of content delivery. 

Steve Kabelowsky Contributing Columnist

Media is bombarding us everywhere.

Instead of sheltering his brain from the onslaught, Steve embraces the news stories, entertainment, billboards, blogs, talk shows and everything in between.

The former writer, editor and producer in TV, radio, Web and newspapers, will be talking about what media does in our community and how it shapes who we are and what we do.