Blood Flows. The Industry Reels...
From Boom to Bust? Ho Ho Ho…Rapid and Brutal Downsizing Begins just in time for the Holidays. Bah Humbug!
Blood Flows. The Industry Reels…
A particularly bleak and bloody week for the industry as layoffs, cutbacks, freezes, and general uncertainty have dominated the headlines. Another convulsion in what figures to be an ongoing series, as companies try to figure out how to succeed in a radically changed and continually changing marketplace. First and foremost, our hearts go out to those who were on the receiving end of all of this. Job loss is never easy to accept and the timing being what it is just makes the sting felt more deeply. There’s something especially painful about having your holiday cheer ripped away by a life altering event. It’s the quintessential addition of insult to injury - a cancellation of a period of seasonal joy so many count as a highlight of the entire year. It can be soul crushing and definitely leaves a scar.
Before we go any further, there are a couple of things I’d like you to consider: If you’ve been fortunate enough to escape the impact of all this, please know you have a humanitarian responsibility. Reach out. Find someone who is going through it and connect. Don’t wait for them to contact you. Let them talk, vent, brainstorm, or whatever…just connect. Know that in these circumstances the only thing worse than the initial hurt and sting is the cold isolation that so often follows. Things become awkward. The connections become fewer and far between and the feeling that you no longer belong overwhelms. Job inquiries go unanswered. You learn first-hand what ghosting really means and experience the resulting desperation and despair that attacks your self-worth like a human-eating bacteria. We are social animals. It’s how we survive. You have no idea what a simple, unexpected text can do to lift another person’s outlook and spark hope. Make the time. Work through the awkward. Pay a debt that just might become your own karmic salvation at some point in the future.
Secondly, I would hope each of us would use this as an impetus to take a step back and gain the full measure of perspective needed. The business is changing and is far from landing in its “final” form. Be mindful, observant, critical, and forward thinking. Let your mind seek out new solutions and potential paths to take. In the immortal words of Winston Churchill near the end of World War II…“Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Motivated by our own need to survive, convulsive times, even devastation, can shock loose the grip of the status quo, bring the world into focus, and make us physically and intellectually more open to change. Seize the moment in any way you can. Don’t let this crisis go to waste, because…
The irony is…
Further cutbacks are sure to follow along with a new round of media consolidations as over saturation of the market and diminished reliance on organized, mainstream media, in general, remains the decided trend. The irony here, and this could be a scene straight out of Game of Thrones, is that even as the current media mega monsters are slashing, burning, and reorganizing internally, they’re also plotting the next moves to grow larger and consolidate power. Their survival depends on it. “Go big or go home” was never truer than today in the industry. We all need to acknowledge that this is the norm for now and not indulge in the very human behavior of feeling relieved we’ve dodged a bullet that surely will never come our way again. The gun is fully loaded.
On a Personal Note…
I was very sad to see CNN finally throw in the towel on HLN as part of their announced cuts. They haven’t known what to do with the old CNN2 since the basic 24/7 headline wheel went out of vogue years ago. And, despite its status as a fully distributed cable network, the powers that be or were, never fully committed the resources to giving it a unique identity and niche. In full disclosure, I headed up program development at CNN & HLN in the early 2000s and was one of the creators of HLN’s bold prime-time experiment featuring shows by Nancy Grace, Glenn Beck, and a revival of Showbiz Tonight. We created a fair amount of buzz and had some success, but there was also controversy and backlash, something CNN, at the time, was definitely not used to. The network didn’t really know how to sell the new shows to advertisers and, even more importantly, continued powerless to force cable distributors to cough up the highly coveted retransmission fees that HLN had never been able to attract; always positioned as just a value added “freebie” for fees paid to the CNN Mother Ship. Ultimately, economics and discomfort in dealing with the controversial nature of the shows led to a softening of support and HLN Prime gave way to Forensic Files on a continuous loop effectively sealing the fate of CNN’s bastard stepchild.
In Need of a Bigger Headline…
One of the cuts that didn’t get enough attention was the - somewhat unceremonious - axing of Robin Meade and HLN’s Morning Express. Robin joined HLN in 2001 and until yesterday was easily the longest running anchor of a national news show. An amazing run when you think about it. I had the pleasure to work with Robin in both Miami and Chicago before arriving at CNN and I can tell you she qualifies as one of the truly authentic - what you see IS what you get - and genuinely nice people in this industry. Oh, and obviously, incredibly talented. On more than one occasion during my time at the network I, along with others, advocated moving Robin to mornings on the main channel, but each time she was deemed not “serious” enough to fit the network’s hard news image…as they say, timing is everything.
Juxtapositions Are Fun…
There was another item this week that caught my attention but given the givens, probably went largely unnoticed. It was actually an op/ed piece written by Lydia Polgreen for the New York Times entitled Protect Our Democracy. Support Local News. The column, which chronicles the receding resources and impact of local news in this country, provided an interesting, two-sided, juxtaposition with the aforementioned headlines about industry bloodletting. One side cutting resources deemed surplus or non-essential to salvage the bottom line, the other side begging for table scraps to try and survive.
Lydia has spent most of her career covering national and international news as editor-in-chief of HuffPost and editorial director of the New York Times Global, among other stops along the way. Her take, like mine, is that when push comes to shove, the future of our democracy really rests on the strength, or lack thereof, of Local News. She points out that most of the effort to reach the growing news deserts in this country is being undertaken by non-profit startups operating on a wing-and-a-prayer. She offers the suggestion, during this season of charity and scrambling for last minute tax deductions (my words, not hers), to keep them in mind as we dole out our year-end support, which is a fine idea but way too incremental to make a meaningful difference. We desperately need scale. Time is running out. I have an idea…maybe we can talk about it next week. It comes from the year 1989 and involves a Princeton University graduate by the name of Wendy Kopp.
Please make CONNECTION your watchword in the coming days. It’ll mean the world to many, I assure you, and who knows, it might just spark a dialogue that leads to the next big idea!