The Inbox...
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Instead of being held accountable, TV ownership groups and the NAB is fighting the requirement and making up excuses as to why they can’t hire diverse people.
One news manager that “gets it” weighed into FTVLive:
Scott,
To your point. SPOT ON. Yes, pay your people. Give them the tools they need to get the job done. I completely agree!
What makes this difficult are 3 primary groups of people who contribute to this sad state of affairs at the station level:
a. I wanna be on TV talent: The " Tik Tok dancing" "I wanna be on TV" candidates keep accepting these low-paying jobs because the opportunity to dance on camera is more important to them than food on the table. They'll keep eating ramen as long as they have the opportunity to build their "follower base" on Tik Tok. How many times do we need to see the dance of the day, or get a teleprompter tour?
The funny thing is eventually many of these folks "wake up" down the line and leave the business.
b. Foolish News Directors. They stick to their club. They refuse to aggressively look for talent that reflects their market demographics. They hire who is easy, who will take the low pay, who they know (friends or connections). So, they continue to make hiring decisions that are easy or fast and not do what's best for the station. I've sat in department head meetings where the GM says to the ND, "get these open positions filled fast please!"
I know of one station where the community is 30 to 40 percent minority and the news staff at the station in front of and behind the camera doesn't even come close to reflecting the community they always claim they serve.
c. Idiot GMs. I actually had a GM who, when a staff member left, this person would lower the budget line on that position's compensation. In one case the salary line for a job I had to hire for was dropped by 15k. I told this GM I could not find anyone qualified for the job at the salary being offered. I had already been turned down twice because of it. This GM then said I was at fault. Mmmmm. In the end, qualified people did not want the job because the pay was too low. The only people I had to choose from those were the desperate or those who were not just underqualified BUT UNQUALIFIED. Smart people over time will get the message and find employers who value them and wish to pay them a reasonable wage. The pool that's left to choose from is then weakened and the results of that show up on air. Who's fault is that?
d. Corporate recruiters: First, many of these people HAVE NO EXPERIENCE in the positions they are recruiting for. My father once said HR recruiters are trained to screen people out, not in. A corporate recruiter has never given me a candidate that worked out. NEVER. I always reviewed and recruited my own team. I recruited one GREAT employee from "Best Buy". I recruited another from a restaurant.....and now that person is a manager. NO recruiter would have even let me see their resumes, let alone forward them to me.
