Last week I highlighted BusinessWeek’s COMPETITION double-issue and in particular, the oh-so chewy guidance of … “Obsess about Customers, Not Rivals.”
Today, Tom Peters has a great riff off a quote from new CBS Evening News anchor, Katie Couric. In the issue, Katie contributes this take on competition in television, "Television is one of the most competitive arenas anywhere. I think the only way to thrive and survive in that atmosphere is to have the love of competition in your blood."
Tom smartly and rightly says, “That quote helps me realize why I don't watch evening news. If your ultimate goal is to ‘compete,’ presumably for ratings supremacy, in my opinion you are/one is doomed to mediocrity.”
He riffs further by saying …
"Here's the sort of thing I dearly wish Ms Couric had said: "Ratings are the least of it. Evening TV news is stale, in the tank, even laughable. It doesn't need a 'cool' or 'refreshing' 'female' anchor. It needs to be blown up and re-thought from the ground up. If the program I anchor looks or smells or feels anything at all like evening news of the Cronkite-Rather era I will have failed miserably and horribly abused a golden opportunity, even if I do edge out the guys at the other networks."
Read Peters’ full post as its loaded with insight.
Apparently delivering the news to the people has become, rather than a profession dedicated to freedom of the press, a sort of popularity contest wherein the "winner" is the person who can bring in the most viewers for the network. What a shame!
Posted by: thebizofknowledge | August 29, 2006 at 04:33 PM