Walk into any television station in America and you’ll find something fascinating. The newsroom assignment desk may be staffed by someone who remembers editing tape with a razor blade, sitting next to someone who has never owned a DVD player. The General Manager might still remember when newspaper revenue was king. The Digital Sales Manager
Let’s stop pretending this isn’t an uncomfortable question: are non-competes and restrictive employment contracts helping the media industry, or slowly strangling it? Depending on who you ask, they’re either essential protection for businesses investing in talent, draconian restraints that trap people in jobs they’ve already outgrown, standard practice “because that’s how it’s always been,” or
Non-Competes Are Costing You Talent. Change My Mind. Read More »
If you’ve spent any time scrolling LinkedIn lately (or read my blog posts), you’ve probably seen the headlines: ownership changes, consolidation, budget cuts, hiring freezes, restructuring, and additional responsibilities piled onto already overloaded teams. It’s enough to make even the most accomplished television professional wonder what’s next. Let’s start with some good news. Despite all
*A Survival Guide from Carver Talent* Congratulations. You graduated from college. You survived finals, group projects, professors who still use PowerPoint templates from 2004, and enough ramen noodles to qualify as a sodium-based life form. Now comes the easy part. Just kidding — now you have to find a job. And if you’re reading this
Dear College Graduate: So You Want to Work in Local Television? Read More »
Every recruiter has “the email” — the one you screenshot, the one you forward to a trusted industry friend with zero context except: “Read this. I’m speechless.” Here is mine. And I’m sharing this only to educate, not to embarrass this candidate. I pinky promise — and pinky promises are golden with my daughter. I’ve
A Peek Into My Media Recruiting World: The $10 Million TV Sales Candidate Read More »
The local television business is changing faster than many executives want to admit. Consolidation. Acquisitions. Budget compression. Corporate layering. Centralization. Hiring freezes disguised as “strategic pauses.” Department heads are managing two stations, three platforms, four new revenue expectations, and five additional job responsibilities — often without meaningful increases in compensation. And yet, despite all of
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
