Fixing TV News from the inside out

July 17, 5:20 PMTV News ExaminerIrv Kass

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COMMENTARY: As the economy continues to struggle, television stations and the networks are cutting news staffs and looking for ways to save money. Several stations have joined local news sharing (LNS) agreements where routine meetings and news conferences are shot by one station and shared with other members of the LNS group. In some cities, weather has been outsourced to sister stations. In San Diego, weather reports in several newscasts on KNSD come from KNBC in Los Angeles, more than 100 miles away. There are media reports that NBC might use forecasters from the Weather Channel (which the company owns) to provide content for local stations around the country. On the network side there have also been major cuts, particularly in staffing bureaus overseas.

The demands of running a business require cutting from time to time. The problem is that there is little building going on, in terms of  change in approaches to presenting the news or the best use of new technologies that can actually serve the viewers. This trend has been evident for years. With that in mind, I took a look at a story I wrote one year ago. It holds up today and offers some suggestions and insight for the future. As it's a bit on the long side, I'll break into two parts. Here's part one; look for part two on Sunday.

The decline of television news, in ratings, revenue, and the public’s esteem, would drive most industries to find new ways to do business. Instead of engaging new approaches, the leaders of TV stations and network news operations, persist in following old maps that lead to nowhere. Cutbacks, layoffs, and new, more efficient technology, allow newsrooms to cut costs, but there is a cost to this cost cutting. Chief among those consequences are diminished quality and employee angst. Lower quality and unhappy employees get the attention of owners and general managers when they affect revenue. So why do television news operations keep doing things the way they have done them for the last 40 years? Why haven’t some of the more enlightened approaches to leading competitive, profit-driven, organizations taken hold in the world of local, network, and cable news?

The top-down, command and control, approach to running news operations has not really changed much in the 35 years I’ve worked in, or been associated with, TV news. There is a news director, or network exeutive producer, or news division president, who is in charge of a multi-million dollar enterprise, of varying scale, depending on market size or available audience. The staffs work long hours producing increasingly more content to fill the always-voracious appetites of the 24-hour news cycle. In order to feed the beasts of newscasts, websites, teases, and special projects, each news worker, has been doing more and more, with less and less. Most important is that the viewers—the public, citizens—are not being served as well as they should be. Mid course corrections, layoffs, consultant-driven new approaches, and the litany of recycled, old ideas will not cure the disease that afflicts TV newsrooms. What it will take is bold leadership willing to change the rules in order to stop dying, and begin the process of being born as a renewed business

A BETTER WAY

Servant-leadership is an approach to organizational leadership attributed to Robert Greenleaf. Greenleaf was an AT&T executive who, after a long career, retired and became a consultant and advocate for this approach. Servant-leadership, as an articulated management philosophy, has been around since the 1970s and counts among its advocates and adherents a number of top selling management authors, university professors, and business executives. Among the key tenets of servant-leadership is the idea that in order to lead we must first be servants. As is the case with most transformational ideas, the power is in the paradox; by serving we lead.

Servant-leadership is not a fad, or a cure all for every problem that businesses face. It has limitations, but it also has tremendous power. Most important, it is better suited to television news than the long-standing models of leadership that are inadequate to solve the current crises we have been describing.

As the demands on TV news staffs have increased over the years, fertile ground for oppressive work environments sow the seeds of anger and disaffection. The bottom line creates demands; and the short-term interests of making budget and raising stock prices drive the people running newsrooms. In this climate it is easy to lose track of why journalists choose to work in news. For many, serving the public interest by informing and educating viewers, about important events and stories, is the reason for the job. Serving and service are at the heart of news men's and women's chosen work.

Part Two, New Approaches, will be available on Sunday.