In 2021, I wrote an article about recruiting into local television. I called it “Extinction Alert.” To read it again, here is the link: Extinction Alert? — Recruiting Into Local Television Today. Is “The Great Resignation” Real? At the time, I described myself as a canary in the coal mine. I thought I was writing
I Thought I Was Seeing a Recruiting Problem. I Was Wrong. Read More »
Carver Corner I watched the videos from FOX 26 Houston anchor Caroline Collins several times. My first reaction? Kudos. Seriously. This is exactly the kind of experimentation local television needs right now. Collins is learning a system that lets her anchor while handling tasks traditionally done by others. She is producing, directing, handling audio and
One Person Can Run the Newscast. But Should That Be the Goal? Read More »
I received a text recently from a Chief Engineer I placed with a television station several years ago. “Hey, let’s chat.” Uh oh. I texted back: “Free when you are.” My phone rang about 12 seconds later. Before I tell you what he said, some context. Broadcast engineering has a talent problem. A big one.
Your Chief Engineer Just Called a Recruiter Read More »
Local television does not have a shortage of ideas about its future. If anything, it may have more competing visions for the future than at any point I can remember. Across the industry, companies are making very different bets about what comes next. Some are leaning harder into technology, AI and new ways of producing
Local TV Has a Strategy for Everything Except the Talent Read More »
Spend enough time around local television stations and you start to notice something interesting about the people responsible for the people. At the station level, they may be called a Business Office Manager, Human Resources Manager or HR Business Partner. Sometimes they are responsible for HR along with payroll, benefits, accounting, compliance and whatever else
Local Television Doesn’t Have an HR Problem. It Might Have a Utilization Problem. Read More »
There is a phrase I hear constantly in media recruiting: “There just aren’t any candidates.” Sometimes that’s true. Certain talent pools have unquestionably gotten smaller. Experienced broadcast engineers are becoming harder to find. Newsroom leadership pipelines have thinned. Sales management benches aren’t what they once were. Consolidation, downsizing, retirements and people simply leaving the business
You Don’t Have a Candidate Shortage. You Have a Job Design Problem. Read More »
There is a fundamental mistake I see companies make when they talk about recruiting. They confuse the applicant pool with the talent market. They are not the same thing. A position opens. The company posts it. The job goes on LinkedIn, the corporate career site and maybe a few industry boards. Applications start coming in.
Your Best Candidate Isn’t Looking for You Read More »
Don’t get me wrong: my blog articles and social media posts are not attacks on the television broadcast industry. They are not written by someone standing on the outside throwing rocks at a business he does not understand. They are written by someone who has spent nearly 15 years taking the industry’s pulse—one conversation at
Concern Is Not Cynicism Read More »
For decades, local television executives looked at newspapers the way a healthy person looks at someone else’s diagnosis: unfortunate, but not contagious. Print publishers got flattened by Craigslist, Google, Facebook, and the internet’s dismantling of classified advertising. Television stations, meanwhile, sat behind a protected moat of retransmission fees, political advertising, cable bundles, and weather coverage
America’s Local TV Industry Has a Newspaper Problem Read More »
There is a new format taking hold in local television, and it should make every broadcaster stop and think. WMAR-2 in Baltimore has eliminated live anchors from its 7 and 11 p.m. newscasts. The broadcasts now begin with weather, then move into prerecorded local stories, national content, and graphics. No familiar anchor at the desk.
When Local News Removes the Anchor, What Else Does It Remove? Read More »
