Local Media: Go Big or Go Home

Transforming a local media company is not a part-time endeavor. You can’t dabble in it and expect good results. Yet that is what many media companies are doing.

This frustrates the heck out of people who were hired to drive digital revenue and ignite change at these organizations. We talk to a lot of these people at LMA. They are the ones that are looking to move on to another company. Increasingly, they are choosing the right culture over almost everything else, including pay.

The common complaints:

No clear mission/vision - or it's always changing

Inability to think long-term

Unwillingness to invest

Incompetent or ineffective leadership at the top

Company politics

Legacy-driven sales culture

Lack of support from their boss

Some recent examples:

A top ten media company had an R&D partner “dumb down” an online booking engine because a customer booked a $2,000 advertising campaign online and a legacy sales rep “threw a fit” because it was an account on their prospect list. Now advertisers are only allowed to book up to $500 online to “keep the peace.”

An advertising director at a large metro daily grew digital revenue in Q1 by nearly 30% (on a large base) and the CEO of the company called him to say that his priorities were out of whack and he needed to get back to selling more ROP. He suggested ROP training for the reps. Up to this point, the top priority was digital growth.

An agency executive was hired at a mid-size media company to start a digital agency. They were promised resources, funding and runway. Six months in, the company shut it down. It never had a chance to survive.

A station manager at a large broadcast company is “not into digital” and the corporate VP of digital has been told to back down from working with that particular property.

A media company that dominates a top 25 market sent an executive on a recent Innovation Mission. When she returned and gave a report to the senior team, complete with her recommendations to jumpstart culture change and transformation, they dismissed all of them and said maybe in a year or two they could revisit. She resigned two weeks later.

I could go on.

A commitment is needed and it starts at the very top. Clear goals need to be properly communicated. Resources and funding must back up new business units. Runway must be granted. If you are unable or unwilling, then don’t pretend to be a company that is serious about transformation. Don’t hire people to drive change and then handcuff them. That never works.

Go big or go home doesn’t mean making reckless financial decisions. But it does mean treating new business units more like start-ups and taking a certain amount of measured risk. It means failing sometimes and being okay with that. My favorite sign at Facebook is “If you haven’t failed recently, are you really thinking bold enough?” I know people at very high levels in our industry that are terrified of failing. As a result, they play it safe. And safe doesn’t drive innovation.

We are going to host an industry discussion on disruptive innovation at Media Transformation 2017 being held in Chicago on August 15-17. The dynamic Dr. Paul Wang, Associate Professor, Medill IMC Program, Northwestern University, will serve as the moderator. The subject matter will be Clay Christensen’s new book, Competing Against Luck. The full program will be announced the week of April 3 and the first 150 to register will receive a free copy of the book. Stay tuned for registration details and plan to join us for this important industry conversation. Then go big when you get home and put transformation on the fast track!