The local television industry just made several very strategic leadership moves, and the timing is difficult to ignore. First, Nexstar Media Group announced Elizabeth Ryder as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary to the Board of Directors — notably, an executive deeply tied to major acquisition and regulatory strategy during Nexstar’s biggest expansion years. […]
*A Survival Guide for Television Station Leaders, Department Heads & Future GMs* Let’s be honest: most television executives were never actually taught how to negotiate compensation. They learned how to increase ratings, lead teams, grow revenue, manage crises, navigate ownership changes, and hit impossible budgets with shrinking resources. But salary negotiation? Most people are just
Salary Negotiation in Television: Play Chess, Not Checkers Read More »
After 30 years in human resources and recruiting — including running recruiting for a large broadcast group and now spending the last 7 years owning my own media recruiting firm, Carver Talent — I’ve come to one undeniable conclusion: recruiting is less of a profession and more of a front-row seat to the greatest reality
The media industry loves to talk about urgency. Breaking news, quarterly revenue, ratings books, FCC deadlines, digital growth, talent wars — everything moves fast. But when it comes to hiring, some media companies still move like it’s 1997: post a job, wait, pray, interview the same recycled applicants their competitors already passed on, and drag
Yes, I’m old enough to remember when resumes showed up in the mail. And get this — we posted job ads only in the local newspaper. Yikes. Actual newspapers and snail mail. Resumes delivered by the United States Postal Service, to an office, in an envelope, on expensive “executive” resume paper that could double as
Recruiting Used to Be a Profession. Now It’s a Software Filter. Read More »
There are certain phrases in recruiting that sound polished, reasonable, and professionally neutral, and still immediately change the temperature of a conversation. In media recruiting, “mutual parting of the ways” is one of them. To be clear, it is not automatically disqualifying. But it is close enough to a disqualifier in practice that experienced hiring
Stop Saying This in Interviews: “Mutual Parting of the Ways” Read More »
The media industry is one of the smallest “big industries” in America. Television, radio, digital, streaming, sales, engineering, creative, executive leadership — everybody knows somebody who knows somebody. There’s no six degrees of separation here like the Kevin Bacon game. In media, it’s usually one or two phone calls before someone knows your background, work
Media Industry Recruiting: 10 Smart Tips, Tricks, and Career Hacks That Actually Matter Read More »
The media industry loves to talk about innovation — AI-powered workflows, digital transformation, audience engagement, revenue diversification, multi-platform strategy. But let’s ask a less glamorous question: when did hiring become so impersonal? If you talk privately with candidates across broadcast television, digital media, streaming, radio, ad tech, and corporate media groups, there’s a recurring theme
Corporate Recruiting in Media: Efficient or Broken? Read More »
Why do relationships matter in executive recruiting? Because the best candidate rarely looks perfect on paper. A little over a month ago, my firm, Carver Talent, took on a Director of Sales search for a television station in a Top 50 market. Excellent station. Strong ownership. Incredible city. The kind of opportunity media sales leaders
The Resume Said “LSM.” The Interview Said “Future DOS.” Read More »
Local television is changing fast — faster than most station management teams want to admit publicly. Budgets are tighter, expectations are higher, and corporate pressure is high. Digital revenue demands are growing, newsrooms are evolving, AI is entering workflows, and somewhere in the middle of all of it, talented managers are quietly asking themselves the
Your Career Isn’t Stalled. You’re Just Playing Defense. Read More »
