Saturday, January 08, 2005
Klein: “If we’re going to succeed, we have to stay on important stories and own them.”
Source: Broadcasting and Cable There's a great article in B and C highlighting new CNN President Jon Klein's first days on the job. B and C calls it "Baptism by Water." You'll find the article HERE. Below are some quotes from the article:
To capture the “true impact of what happened,” Klein says, “we’re letting people tell their stories. It’s in the DNA of this place to do that. If you open the spigot at this network, trust the instincts of the people in the field, you get powerful work.”
“If we’re going to succeed, we have to stay on important stories and own them,” says Klein. “We’re going to cover the war on terror and homeland security the way we covered the tsunami.”
“The conventional wisdom in the business is that you look at the Fox News Channel and emulate what they do,” says Klein, in a subtle dig at MSNBC, which is planning to give Carlson a prime time show. “I’d rather trust my instincts.”
“You have to embrace the institution and love it more than you love your own ideas,” he says. “CNN suffered the same problem that AT&T faced when the Baby Bells were born. When you’re the only game in town, you don’t take the competition seriously. You become uncompetitive. You need a slap in the face to make you sit up and take notice. In a strange way, Fox has done us a favor by waking up the sleeping giant. We are fully awake and a little pissed off and ready to go do what we’re better at that anybody in the world.”
# posted by ATN @ 12:58 PM 
