Whether he’s trashing TiVo, pushing the virtues of repurposing or refusing to pay big bucks to renew “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Jamie Kellner relishes a good fight.
“I have a lot of ideas that some people embrace and others don’t,” Kellner admits. “If I believe something, I do it and say it. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, and if I’m right, I’m right.”
It’s those convictions that helped Kellner launch two successful broadcast networks, even when critics pooh-poohed both attempts. But it also sometimes got him into trouble.
That’s why it surprised few industry players last week when Kellner announced he would leave his gig as head of Turner Broadcasting, giving up oversight of a diverse range of webs, from CNN to Cartoon Network.
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While he’ll remain atop the WB until summer 2004, Kellner’s eventual exit will deprive the TV industry of one of its few remaining mavericks. In a business now dominated by quarter-to-quarter thinking, Kellner has been that rare exec willing to think long-term. .
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“He’s a bit of a rebel,” says one rival TV topper. “Diplomacy is not Jamie’s strong suit. He digs in and he has a strong point of view.”
If execs, like the networks they run, exude a “brand,” then Kellner’s brand is one of the most defined in the business.
For starters, the former Turner topper wears the exact same outfit to work every day. Blue shirt, Khaki pants. Without fail. Blue shirt, khaki pants.
“It’s consistent — and one of the qualifications of having a brand is being consistent,” Kellner says.
But beyond that, Kellner’s experience fighting for respect in the station and adcommunity –first at Fox and later at the WB — has given him the kind of insight that few other TV execs can boast. “I don’t think anybody understands the station or ad sales business better than Jamie Kellner,” says Fox Television Entertainment Group chairman Sandy Grushow, who has both worked under and competed against the exec.
Kellner’s reputation brought him to Atlanta, where ex-AOL Time Warner toppers Gerald Levin and Robert Pittman convinced him two years ago to try to revamp the Turner nets, including CNN and entertainment outlets TBS and TNT.
Some of the challenges were familiar for Kellner, who took on the role as Turner CEO. It took time for 20th Century Fox TV to give his upstart Fox a chance and Warner Bros. TV to pay WB some attention; similarly, under Kellner, Turner has had its run-ins with Warner Bros. Distribution over re-running WB shows on TNT.
Kellner also took up the challenge of convincing advertisers that outlets like TNT and TBS should get the same kind of cost per thousand (CPM) rates as broadcast nets. It wasn’t successful.
“It’s always frustrating when you can’t do everything you want to do,” Kellner says. “Entrepreneurs want to move quickly, but big companies move slower. Big companies also have other interests that are not necessarily tied into what you do.”
In the end, Kellner is an entrepreneur — after all, while launching a full-fledged station group (Acme Communications) might be a full-time gig for most CEOs, for Kellner it was a hobby.
And Turner wasn’t the same kind of startup business that Kellner had enjoyed building over his 17 years at Fox and the WB.
His detractors say the Hollywoodized Kellner made few efforts to endear himself to the Atlanta-based Turner crowd, a fact that made it difficult for the exec to enact sweeping changes.
“There are huge innovators within this company, but the company historically hasn’t created a culture that embraces innovation and people who think outside the box,” one AOL TW vet says. “They consume them.”
With his contract up, no one doubts that it was Kellner’s decision to pack it up and move back west. It’s no secret the exec can more than afford to give it up and spend more time with his family in Montecito, having cashed in his ownership stakes at both Fox and the WB.
Kellner’s decision to exit Turner and focus on the WB won’t have much of an impact on the Frog — at least in the short term.
Though he’ll be back on the West Coast, and closer to the network he founded, Kellner doesn’t intend to start micromanaging the WB.
“Decisions will be made the same way they have been for the last two years, as a group,” Kellner says. “We’ve all learned how to work together; nobody tries to be territorial.”
The two leading candidates to replace Kellner — Frog prexy Jed Petrick and entertainment chief Jordan Levin — are both Kellner loyalists who’ve made it clear that their boss will always have a voice at the table.
“It’s Jamie’s network; we just rent it,” one WB insider says.
The one wildcard is Warner Bros. chief Barry Meyer, who once again has oversight of the network he helped launch.
Meyer said last week he expected a “seamless transition,” but once Kellner exits next year, it’s always possible that Meyer could decide to name someone other than Petrick or Levin to head the WB.
As long as the Frog continues on its current profitable path, however, it’s unlikely that any exec would try to make serious changes to a network that’s working.