Media is playing a dangerous game
Zucker, a Harvard man and a known broadcaster has been fired. New faces would be hired to raise the falling number of viewers of the NBC.
ZUCKER HAD joined the NBC when he was fresh from Harvard. He had enthusiasm and the courage to call a spade a spade. Zucker went over to News division but paid equal attention to Entertainment. Of course, both the departments are important to attract viewers to the TV network. Indeed the NBC had made a mark by covering wars in the Middle-East live and bringing it straight from the battlefield to the bedroom. That department has continued to be its forte till today. The success or failure of a TV channel is assessed by the number of viewers it attracts to its different programmes. Of late there has been a noticeable shrinkage in the numbers of men and women who once preferred to watch the NBC. An inhouse assessment of the causes of decline pinpointed to the staleness of presentation and programming. The TV viewers wish to have newness on their screens to remain glued to it. Lack of it causes the Mouse to spring to action. Channel changes. The TRP falls. The bugbear causes a decline in the Ads that the channel attracts. This causes a loss of revenue and the big guns who run the show for money get worried. The scapegoat has to be found. The CEO is the first one to be guillotined. He is the Head and his head should be the first one to roll. It has rolled. Zucker took his sacking with a pinch of salt. In good humour, he said that in the profession of Media, specially the electronic one and that too the TV, people who run the show get shot. I have just been shot, said Zucker. He found it hard to believe that his name was suddenly transferred to the list of Unemployed Status. Innovation has to be brought in by new men and women and Zucker was an old hand, not required now. So be it. HIRING AND FIRING AN OLD GAME There is nothing new about the sack that Zucker got. Hiring and firing have been going on from time immemorial. The TV may be comparatively new as a media but the principle continues to be the same. If new faces have to be brought in for generating new ideas, for bringing in newness to Presentation and to the Content, the old faces have to go. Old order changeth yielding place to the new. An important newspaper online gave the heading that Knives are out at the CNN but it was not the whole truth. Figuratively, one may say yes, the sack did take place. However, it was a one-way ticket for the show. Like the TV, you just watch it, there is no talk back. The employee sacked had no way to use his knife against the employer because the latter is invisible behind the heavily curtained office room. He is well protected against the telephone battle by the personal staff who receive a call in the first instance and says the boss is busy. AVENUES OPEN Fortunately, the brilliant alumni of Harvard have the wide world open to them for beginning a new career.All is not lost in the profession. The new avenues are open. If the bright fellows play musical chairs and always get a good chair to sit on, it encourages the new generation to join the Media and make it a life-long profession. Indeed the Future is bright in the Media, including the electronic media.
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