Programming
 ManagementÕs Role in the Core Business
 

Programming and Production
n	Definitions
n	ThatÕs why we're here
n	Consider your experience
n	Look for balance in role btwn
o	doing the job
o	watching passively

Mgt. Role: Setting the Agenda
n	Know the market
n	Articulate the vision
n	Demand quality (news, ads, p.a.)
n	Assess strengths
n	Identify weaknesses
o	shore them up
o	avoid them

Mgt. role: Nurturing quality
n	Review all programs (know the inventory)
n	Know the competition 
n	Set the standards
n	Praise immediately, publicly
	o	this gives you credibility to...
n	Criticize immediately, privately

Mgt. role: Getting help
n	Insist on research
o	audience
o	performers
o	news evalution
o	programs, concepts
n	Be willing to ignore results
n	Use your own network

Mgt. role: the tough ones
n	Is the right thing to do?
n	Will your board, vp support it?
n	Who will support, condemn?
n	Maximize the value 

Mgt. role: Taking the heat
n	Remain calm to staff, others
n	Remain open, responsive to all
n	Put yourself in critic's place
n	Remember audience, quality goals
n	Shield your staff
	o	from network brass, advertisers and from candidates

Responding to Critics
n	Anticipate trouble
n	Depend on your PR person
o	insist on message points
o	limit access to media 
o	keep production staff out
n	Consider saying nothing
n	Take the high road

Mgt. role:When youÕre wrong
n	Say so, as soon as possible
n	Accept responsibility               (donÕt blame staff)
n	Conduct internal review           (why did it happen?)
n	Take action, announce it

Programming Content

n	Looking at it another way...

What business are you in?
n	Are you selling information directly
n	Or are you selling readers/viewers to advertisers?

Nancy Hicks Maynard:
n	"Publishers are discovering that they're not really in the 
news business. Certainly newspapers manufacture news; 
it's just not how they make money. Publishers are selling 
the information indirectly."

The "Media Triangle"
             
In new environment
n	Information priced for value
n	Highest value products migrating to paid media
n	General news--low value
n	specialty news--high value

What's the competition for information?
n	Everything else--time is the most valued commodity
n	NYT publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. says "Our 
	readers buy a guide, judgment, talent and credibility."

Where are the costs?
n	Oakland Tribune spends $21m (of $45m) on 
n	newspaper mfgr and distribution 
n	But every home with a printer could be a satellite 
	printing plant

What should you look for? 
n	20% modem penetration
	o	the Òpoint of take-offÓ; near that now 
n	killer applications such as: personal agents or really 
	good search engines
n	application killers such as: privacy concerns or credit 
risk 

Other trend markers:
n	Shifts in ad expenditures 
	o	i.e., away from ads and twd point of sale or away from tradÕl 
	media and twd new media
n	Changes in law, regulation
o	V-chip, or lack of copyright protection 

Role of brands
n	some say essential, even more important in complex 
	info world
n	others say no brand loyalty, all info is generic--but user 
	specific

Role of networks
n	Could be broadcast, cable news or on-line networks
n	Emerged because cost of production was prohibitive
n	Networks still attractive; scale needed for sufficient 
	investment (i.e., Disney-ABC, AOL-Microsoft) 

Access for providers, users
n	Info providers want their own brand, open access ("I 
	don't want to be an icon on AOL")
n	Aggregators want everything under their umbrella, with 
	brands below
n	Users want...what?


"I am absolutely agnostic regarding methods of distribution. If 
someone would be kind enough to invent a technology, I'll 
be pleased to beam it directly into your cortex. We'll have 
the city edition, the late city edition and the mind meld 
edition."
           --Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr.