Thursday was one such visit that gave us an opportunity to meet our new head of Gannett Broadcasting Dave Lougee. Dave replaced Roger Ogden in that role last month, and was introduced to the Channel 3 staff by Gannett CEO, Craig Dubow.I found Dave to be quite an impressive individual - very articulate - who speaks in a manner that leaves you with a clear vision of where we are headed. Craig's presentation has always been one of my favorites.
Media in general is at a crossroads right now with the emergence of so many outlets for consumers to get their information. In TV, we are competing against radio, other TV, cable, satellite, the Internet, ipods, Google, Yahoo...and dozens of other sources for your attention and the advertising dollar. The money pie is getting sliced into smaller pieces at all times, and it's our mission to make sure we remain a leader in the local TV market.
Without going into specifics since this blog is read by our competitors, I came away with a strong feeling that Gannett knows where it is headed. The road may be bumpy, but we are going to get there. The next 100 years will be as exciting as the past 100 years have been.
Craig clearly understands his mission and has told us ours. It's to provide the best local content to our viewers and readers as we can. But, we must be adaptive to the changing nature of the business in order to survive. At WKYC, we have the right mix of people to get that job done.
You are already noticing it, whether you realize it or not. We are expanding beyond just one broadcast channel. We are multimedia: WKYC, WKYC-HD, the Akron Canton News on cable, WKYC.com, North Coast Moms.com, North Coast Brides.com, WKYC Outdoors.com, the Director's Cut, Fair Weather Fans on the Internet...and Sportstime Ohio on the sports side...with Browns and Indians programming you won't find anywhere else...because no one else has the capabilities and the talents this facility has in its employees.
I would be remiss to say that we don't occasionally run into issues or have labor disagreements with the company...or have to deal with tightening of the financial belt with Gannett... but Gannett is a respected leader in the industry and its encouraging that the corporate managers take the time and make the effort to talk to the employees.
But as everyone knows - it's sure a relief when they leave - and they knew that too.
