Here is a brief excerpt from an article written by Vivian Schiller for LinkedIn’s “Big Ideas 2014” series in which LinkedIn Influencers pick one big idea that will shape 2014. Amidst all the fuss about Cheryl Sandberg and her advocacy of leaning into career opportunities, here’s someone who suggests another approach. To read the complete article and check out others, please click here.
Photo: Phil Frank
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My big idea for 2014 is to make a leap from everything I’ve ever known in my career. Come January, I’m giving up perks, familiarity, a large staff, and a job that I can easily explain.
I could not be more excited.
For the last 26 years, I’ve been lucky to work for some of the best content creators in the world – CNN, Discovery, The New York Times, NPR, and NBC. Each company is unique, but what they have in common is a hard-earned reputation for superb journalism and storytelling. Just as important, each is known for its powerful foundation in “legacy media”, and for a culture deeply rooted in that history. Whether TV, print, or radio — that legacy platform still brings in the lion’s share of revenue.
Denial is no longer the issue it once was. Most everyone gets that digital media has changed the way content is created, distributed and consumed. And so my former employers and other news organization are doing what they can to evolve their practices. NBC News, where I work today, is currently in the midst of an internal transformation to ensure that everyone is thinking multi-platform and delivering to audiences at the speed and language of the web. This is all good.
But change comes gradually, slowly. The cash cow must be protected. This is not a criticism by any means; it is a fact. Legacy dollars pay for foreign and investigative coverage that most startups can ill afford. And so I’ve committed the last ten years of my career to finding ways to disrupt, but not destroy. To be a gentle gadfly who tries to introduce new ideas and thinking, and encourage risk-taking where it makes sense. That includes working with media partners, something that can still be uncomfortable for many traditional institutions.
When one of those partners — Chloe Sladden at Twitter — reached out about her search for a new role to head up News, my first thought was: “Wow, I want them to find someone great so I can partner with them at NBC.” I gave her a lot of names to consider, mine not among them. But we kept talking, and I met more of her colleagues, and then her boss, and then her boss’s boss. Somewhere along the way it hit me: what if I’ve been going about this all wrong? What if instead of being the digital person in a media company I should be the media person in a tech company? Could those same relationships work in reverse?
So when Twitter decided to take make a bet on me, I decided to take the leap.
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To read the complete article, please click here.
Vivian Schiller is Senior VP & Chief Digital Officer, NBC News. To check out her other articles, please click here.