I loved this book. Am definitely biased as much of my childhood was related to my Dad's work in the early days of television advertising and because I grew up in NYC and can remember when there were maybe 20 people, if that, standing outside of the Today studio.
But the reason why it's a must read is not only is it written by one of media's brilliant young minds and writers, but because Mr. Stelter shows us how haphazardly decisions that are worth millions and millions of dollars are made. There is a reactive quality to the executives' decisions that can be seen not only in morning television, but on Wall Street, in politics, in much of current culture.
While Stelter details the extraordinary pressures on the corporate executives of viewer numbers and ratings, and how they affect advertising revenue dollars, and corporate shareholder demands, he also shows how misguided a fast decision can be. Stelter shows us that while the executives think they know their audiences, it is the audiences who know themselves best. It is a head scratcher how they thought pushing Ann Curry out of her chair would not be viewed by Today's audience as a betrayal of a loyal, and yes, middle-aged woman and how that would not have serious repercussions on how they would view Mr. Lauer and the innocent replacement, the real Bambi, Ms. Guthrie.
Stelter shows us that regardless of Curry's professionalism, she was allowed an anchor chair learning curve of a nanosecond. As GMA leapt ahead, all the NBC executives could think to do was to play musical chairs, rather than looking at content. While time is definitely money, had the Today Show taken the long view and enlisted Curry's and Lauer's creativity into how to evolve Today and their roles quickly into a 21st century show, viewers would have waited, and surely the ratings and ad revenue would have returned. And had they not, well then it might have been time to replace BOTH Lauer and Curry.
What Stelter lets us see is that the automatic (sexist) reaction was that the woman had to go. A woman who obviously needed more time to get into the anchor chair "zone" and who had the brains and the determination to do that for her bosses had they let her.
GMA and CBS This Morning come across as trusting their audiences. Today and NBC and Comcast apparently can't be bothered.
No wonder The New York Times's media king David Carr, @carr2n, is so proud of Mr. Stelter. This is the first of what I hope will be many books and investigations that take Mr. Stelter and his wonderfully linear and clear professional writing skills to places, media-related and beyond, as far-ranging as his brilliant intellect. Go @brianstelter!
@willowbarcelona
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