School of Journalism
&nb=
sp; =
IN TROUBLE
&nb=
sp;
Dirk
Dear Charlie:
&nbs=
p; Once
again, I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed the RTNDA/Universit=
y of
a lot of the ideas I learned into practice. I got much more inp=
ut
from all of the people in the news department—I really did becom=
e a
participative manager. In the last couple of months I've had several
people tell me that I'm a better news director.
Two of those people are not my lead anchor a=
nd
my general manager. Ellen Arnold, the anchor, has been at the station=
for
about five years—she preceded me by three years—and she has a&n=
bsp;very
tight relationship with my general manager, Lou Mounty=
.
I don't think it's anything more than a close business relationship, b=
ut
you can never be sure with Ellen, who will stop at nothing to get her
way. Lou hired Ellen and has promoted her as
the station's leading personality and star.
At first Lou thought Ellen would be KVVB's savior in our ratings battle with Channel=
6,
the market's news leader for over a decade with 45 shares in both early
and late news (we're a distant second with steady 25 shares, although =
we
had a nice uptick in the May sweeps to a 29
share). But Lou seems to be a little discouraged now about ever
overtaking Channel 6. Ellen, who talks with Lou frequently, seems to
sense this and I believe she is trying to divert focus away from herse=
lf
and onto me. She wants to make me the problem and the scapegoat.=
&nbs=
p; Lou
is on the hunt for scapegoats too. This is his third general
manager's job, each in a smaller market. He's been here eight ye=
ars
and seems to be frightened. The local owners are putting pressur=
e on
him to keep profits up. They are in the construction business and
don't understand the importance of news. Plus, some of their real
estate and construction deals are in trouble, and they want the bottom line
propped up no matter what. I think he is looking to make me the
problem.
&nbs=
p; For
example, last week he told me to "fix the weather man." The
weather man has a habit of looking at the monitor when he does the weather
instead of pointing to the map wall behind him often enough. It's min=
or
problem and can be fixed in time. But Lou is on a tear about
it. I've talked to the weather man several times, but it will ta=
ke a
while to correct the habit.
&nbs=
p; Today
Lou said again, "When the hell are you going to fix the weather
man?" Lou goes home about 4:30 p.m. and takes notes on the
newscasts, then brings in the notes two or three times a week—us=
ually
nit-picking stuff like the weather man, never anything substantive abo=
ut
content.
&nbs=
p; Also,
Ellen has been complaining to Lou that we change her scripts all the t=
ime,
that we won't let her ad lib on the air, that we don't involve her in =
any
news decisions and that her producer hates her. She sees Lou abo=
ut
three or four times a week, always with the same litany of
complaints. Lou is getting tired of it and has said to me, "=
;Do
something, be decisive, make her happy--we're paying her more than we pay
you!" What can I do?
&nbs=
p; Ellen
is right: (a) we have to edit her scripts because she's an atrocious
writer, (b) we ask her not to ad lib because she's awful at it—she ha=
s a
silly, nervous, and high-pitched giggle that drives everyone crazy, (c=
) we
don't involve her in news decisions because she's an ex-beauty queen, =
not
a journalist and has terrible news judgment and (d) her producer does =
hate
her because Ellen is impossible to work with. Ellen constantly l=
ets everyone
know that she has access to Lou, and if someone asks her to do somethi=
ng
she doesn't want to, she says things like, "I don't think Lou wou=
ld
like that." As you know, the producer, Lenise
Smith, has an MA from your J School and is an excellent, intelligent, =
and
dedicated producer. Ellen makes Lenise's
life miserable. I tried several times to tell Lou that Ellen is =
a problem,
but he won't listen, so I've stopped saying anything.
&nbs=
p; Lou
doesn't want any more bad news. Business is way off for the first
quarter, network ratings are down, the network has cut compensation, a=
nd
the owners are hollering for more profit. Lou is very tight with=
the
general sales manager, who he thinks is an aggressive, tough guy who pushes=
the
salespeople to the limit. The sales manager=
is in
Lou's office three or four times a day brown nosing him.
Lou likes the operations manager, too, who he
recently promoted from being promotion director. Lou fired the
program director, who had been with the sta=
tion
19 years, and combined her job with the promotion director's and called
the new job operations manager. The operations manager is a memo
freak. He send everything via e-mail-=
-it’s
a flood. He can't even have a conversation with me; he comes to =
my
office and asks if I saw the e-mail he copied Lou on. He did it
three times yesterday. Lou lo=
ves
it. He says, "Now there's a take-charge guy." The ops=
guy
hasn't done much, since Lou makes all the programming decisions (he likes to
get a free dinner from the film salesmen) and the advertising budget has be=
en
cut way back by Lou.
&nbs=
p; The
promotion cutback drives Ellen nuts, but she won't say anything to Lou=
or
Hank, the operations manager, who she knows is one of Lou's pets, too.=
So Ellen complains to me and has somehow twisted things around so that
it's my fault. She even said to me this morning, "Why don't=
you
promote me more?"
&nbs=
p; Charlie,
I'm afraid. My wife and I like this area, and the two kids are h=
appy
with their friends and school. We have a nice house with a big
mortgage. What can I do to avoid being fired?
&nbs=
p; I
think I'm a good manager and I have strong support in the news room,
especially from my 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. producer, =
Lenise,
and my right-hand person, my assignment editor. We know we're do=
ing
a good job on news, but how do I convince Lou?
=
AUTHOR'S NOTE
While
the incidents in this case are not factual, they do represent a compos=
ite
of actual events and operating situations. This case was prepared to =
use
as a teaching tool.
ASSIGNMENT