I’ve been known to dabble a little in Texas Hold’Em tournaments, and a comment from professional poker player Annie Duke really hit home with me – and it’s something you need to think about too.   Duke said, “In poker tournaments a lot of people play to last, and they almost never win.  Others play to win, and while they may have spectaculor crashes sometimes, they also get some spectacular wins.”

Thinking about my own play – which is usually conservative – I do play to last most times, and don’t win as often as I would like – although I usually catch a small part of the payout by making it to the final table.    But, the big money usually eludes me because I don’t play to win.

So how does all this affect you?   Well, in this difficult economy many media companies – and rightly so – are playing to last.   Many stations have been cut to the bone when it comes to personnel.   Many managers are struggling to simply put  a news product on the air with much, much smaller staffs.   They fret about the lack of quality and the potential of driving viewers away.   Outside advertising dollars for TV stations are virtually non-existent.

But finally, there seem to be some hopeful signs for the economy.   For the first time in this recession, there is talk of optimism that we may have hit bottom.  The stock market is showing some life.   General managers I talk to say there is a glimmer of some increase in spending by advertisers.   The hope is we have begun a slow climb back up the mountain – it is a steep climb – and one most stations are doing with far fewer climbers than they had a year or so ago.

So, now is the time to begin to plan how your station (or group)  is going to play to win instead of just playing to last.   The strategy, of course, will be totally different than it was just a few years ago.  Everyone agrees that we will not return to the “good old days” of broadcasting with huge staffs and large salaries.   A new model will emerge from this experience.

AR&D can be your strong partner in this process.   In the near future, you will be hearing and reading about a book our strategists have penned that is chockful of advice on re-engineering local television.    All modesty aside, there is terrific thinking that went into this book.  It is the definitive source on how to move from playing to last to playing to win. 

In the meantime, I challenge you to begin the process of taking a hard look at your indidivual station, and to having discussions on how you will change your strategy from playing to last to playing to win.

Jim

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 7:58 am and is filed under Willi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.