Two Articles About TV Every Digital Marketer Should Read

I am not a regular reader of Conde Nast Portfolio but this month's issue jumped into my shopping cart for two articles -- one about the future of NBC and one about the new realities that TV types must embrace.

Conde Nast Portfolio is interesting - the focus is on the personalities and heroes of business. They describe it thus:

We see business differently.

We see it as powerful, gutsy, and passionate.
We see fascinating stories of ambition, invention, ego, drama, and conflict.
We see how business echoes throughout society—in culture and politics.
We see an arena that deserves a richly produced and designed media option.
We see the benefits of both immersive insights in print and immediate insights online.
We see an audience of engaged executives very much on the same page.

But enough of that commercial. The first article, which you can also read here if you prefer your profiles in electron form, is about NBC CEO Jeff Zucker and his plans for the network. He has a pretty impressive business record at the helm there -- 7 straight quarters of earnings growth in what has been one of the toughest ad markets in memory. He's done it through some REALLY remarkable concepts like:

1. Expansion through the acquisition of cable networks, among them Oxygen which he got for a song.
2. Cost cutting and control, in an industry that hates both.
3. Focus on fewer, higher potential pilots -- essentially trimming the new show list to a more manageable and cost effective number of higher potential properties.

It's a puff piece, but a good read.

The second article is about 6 realities that TV types must face in the new media era. It would be patently wrong for me to summarize the article, so go visit it here.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.