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What is a journalist? A journalist is someone reduced to tears by gibberish passing as thought, especially from the desk of someone who's got control of your future. Don't cry, but here's a memo from Lee Abrams, the newly appointed "innovation officer" of the Tribune Company: "News and Information is the NEW Rock n Roll."
He soon asserts: "On a very personal level, it is important to me that I help Tribune fight 'junk culture'. Smart re-invention that enlightens. Websites can be Disneyland for the mind; TV stations (especially news) can put the Kent Brockman cliché to rest and create a visual experience that intoxicates with brilliance and freshness; And Newspapers! We owe it to our culture to make sure they thrive...We can make America smarter. Not more elite . . . just smarter."
Reading this in context doesn't help, but here's the entire memo.
And here's more: "Average sucks. Best to be brilliantly good, or SO bad, it's engaging. It's that evil zone of average that American Media is stuck in. WE MUST not accept average. Fight it! It's gotten to be accepted that average is fine. No it's not . . . it sucks! Theater of the Mind. We have to play there. We gotta deliver the magic . . ."
AFTERWORD: For a thoughtful contrarian view of Abrams from the Reader's Whet Moser, click here.
This is true to the degree that most young people listen to hip hop rather than rock n roll.
-- SCAM
(that was the name of that Red Eye challenger, right?)
Tribune is bringing in a lot of people with histories of past innovation.
Unfortunately, past success in other enterprises doesn't guarantee the near-term survival of this company.
Can these new leaders quickly and cohesively come together to translate their various visions into financially viable solutions?
Can these leaders counter-act the inevitable ongoing loss of creative talent now occuring at their facilities?
Tribune is a deeply troubled and disorganized conglomerate in a declining industry.
Changing an entire corporate culture in effective ways takes more than grandstanding and fear mongering from those in charge.
Lee's "Disneyland for the mind" (and other visions) are nice and pleasant to contemplate, in utopian sorts of ways, but how do they translate into actionable items that can affect the bottom line NOW.
With the short timelines coming up to meet their various debt payments, in an economy on the brink of recession, they have a very daunting task ahead in getting beyond the current (and seemingly never-ending) pontification and speach making stages, and on to producing results that can save this company.