You may know more than me. Challenge what you hear. Ask questions. Tim Geragthy says in homework (may I quote you?) - Simply put, we need to change how we produce local TV news. What did you mean by that?
It’s just hard getting things done every day. E-mail piles up. There’s always people outside your door. When I was a news director, I can’t tell you how many days I FELT unproductive , because I didn’t get to cross anything off my list. In retrospect, the time you spend helping others reach their goals or solve their problems, may be the most productive time you spend as a leader. But it doesn’t feel like that.
I know when you show up for a new job, your first day, your first month, you look around and you see, “I can fix that”, “I can do that better”. QUESTION: For the current job you’re in now, what are the things you saw right away INSTANTLY that you want to fix. Things you knew you could make an immediate impact. A YEAR LATER, how many of those things still need to be fixed?
But we all know, we can’t stand still.
-30- kinder, gentler than DEATH or more accurate than mere irrelavance.
This is a good book, and it’s been the predominant source for our company’s intense focus on leadership development the past 24-36 months. It’s a good read, and there are a ton of resource materials, evaluations – great for individuals, better for leadership groups (news managers), even up to the enterprise level. The Leadership Challenge is based on 5 principles, listed here. (flip slide) We’re going to spend time on #3.
This session is built on #3 Challenge the Process.
This session is built on #3 Challenge the Process.
What’s the most overhead phrase in your newsroom?
From a management/leadership perspective, it’s this: We’ve always done it that way.
What are the incentives for change? We know that we can’t stand still in this business. There’s too much change around. But what are some short-term reasons to change? Fewer people More productivity Better use of technology
Set up the Laird Hamilton video Think about the elements of making change Motivation Risk – reward … How to incorporate change – how to do it
Obstacles to change: Your boss – satisfied with status quo, not a risk taker, doesn’t get what you’re trying to change Your culture Time Resources Technology – let’s face it, you’re probably not a technology organization, you may not have any influence over your technology partners.
I’ve got my own list. What’s yours? Meetings – the morning meeting -- Why do meetings at all? We give away our content – the iTunes question – is there anything we could produce that would be valuable enough for someone to spend 99 cents for? eBooks, podcasts Beats -> hyperlocal We broadcasters – the value of niche content – The element of strategy is denial.
I’ve got my own list. What’s yours? Meetings – the morning meeting -- Why do meetings at all?
I’ve got my own list. What’s yours? Meetings – the morning meeting -- Why do meetings at all? Make decisions – yeah, but can’t just one person do that? Spread info quickly. But an e-mail can do this too. It’s a lot easier to tell everyone at one time what the plan is, in person, if the message is easily understood. The notion that better stories come from group thinking – elevating the pitches to a higher plane. Also, you’ll get more diverse ideas. CHALLENGE THE PROCESS HERE – it costs a lot of time, and a lot of stress. It’s a hard-stop in the beginning or middle of your day. How much work gets done in the meeting? WJZ example in Baltimore – moved computers into meeting room turned into 3 hour meeting. (next slide for inspire a shared vision)
I’ve got my own list. What’s yours? Meetings – the morning meeting -- Why do meetings at all? Make decisions – yeah, but can’t just one person do that? Spread info quickly. But an e-mail can do this too. It’s a lot easier to tell everyone at one time what the plan is, in person, if the message is easily understood. The notion that better stories come from group thinking – elevating the pitches to a higher plane. Also, you’ll get more diverse ideas. INSPIRE A SHARED VISION – also out the Leadership Challenge. How many of you use your meeting time to highlight good examples of what you’re looking for, or to bring in outside thoughts and opinions, to share research or strategy, in short to inspire them to raise their game.
I’ve got my own list. What’s yours? Beats -> hyperlocal How many of your newsrooms have beats? Tell me about them. Fred D’Ambrosi would love to hear some ideas for hyperlocal coverage. Several stations have Datasphere. How’s it been with keeping the content level up and consistently. The Patch effect. High school football. Geographical – topical. All beats aren’t created equal. Who has a beat? Everyone, what are the expectations? Grid: Beat name, coverage area, person(s) of responsibility, coverage expectations for all platforms, time allowed to work the best. Must be explicitly purposeful about allowing time. Why are we doing that beat? Beyond the newscast of record mentality. Everything goes to online. Some of it makes air.
We are broadcasters. We take on the burden of covering the whole community. But is that where the future of our business is? Narrow, niche focus. Finding smaller areas of our concern in which to cover, but there’s a cost and a responsibility. Good transition: From a beat to a business.
You’ve heard of this guy. Famous for saying no. How many products does Apple make? Not many. 4 primary products – phones, music players, computers, tablets. 30 different products. All driving $100 BILLLION in revenue. MacBooks, Airs, iPods, iPhones, iPads
We broadcasters – the value of niche content – The element of strategy is denial.
How to identify new business opportunities? Bullets on next slides.
This is where your beats can come into play, but only if you’re highly focused.
We have to get beyond the notion that advertisers will carry our load for us. Has anyone in this room ever sold directly to a customer content, either by the slice or in any other way?
Other means of revenue: We give away our content – the iTunes question – is there anything we could produce that would be valuable enough for someone to spend 99 cents for? Insider access (ESPN insider) eBooks, podcasts - easier than you think, if you’ve got deep coverage on a topic (Casey Anthony ebook). Rangers blog -> book EVENTS: Texas Tribune Festival: http://www.texastribune.org/events/2011/sep/24/the-texas-tribune-festival/ Custom content for specific events. JFK in 2013. Tough to change the customer mindset that we give everything away, but the early and middle-adopters are already used to paying small amounts for content (iTunes, Amazon). Take advantage. EXERCISE: Individually, think of something your newsroom does (or could easily do with current expertise) that could be converted into revenue model. Teams of 3, pick one of your ideas and build it out.
What else? Review original list. Any new ideas? What advice do you have to getting started? 5pm is rush hour – broadcast first vs real-time continuous news Daily story-flow planning Printed scripts – actually, could your anchors do away with scripts all together, work off notes – that would be real-time
Four tips – I hope you find them timeless. Every year I have to rewrite the entire presentation from scratch, except for this stuff.
You heard this in the previous talk. Learn to keep score. What’s a monthly unique visitor? What’s a _____ (something more challenging)? You have to own your own scorecard. You can sit and wait for the overnights. Be actively involved.
Digirati – Genie Garner – Honolulu Innovate team - Terri Foley – Las Vegas Innovation team.
Straight from Google. You have to create a culture where people are rewarded for coming up with new ideas, following the plan, and celebrating the lessons learned from the outcome, even if what you do fails. By the way, nothing really fails if you learn for the next time.
Hire people different from you. Hire people with weird skills, but hire them with a plan. Hire people who inspire you and challenge you. Ask Fred D’Ambrosi – hiring a Digital EP. What kind of training do we need in our newsrooms, and who can provide that training?
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