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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Fisher CEO Colleen Brown tells broadcasters at BIA/Kelsey "it's okay to share" with competitors

Her well-received morning keynote included a line from her husband: “Why are you sharing so much information?” about Fisher’s strategy and methods. Her answer to her husband and the room at Day 2 of the BIA/Kelsey “Digital Strategies” seminar is that “a rising tide lifts all boats”, and that it’s “only through industry-wide collaboration” that media companies can hope to navigate the fast-changing universe. Brown says “our efforts in Seattle may not be a perfect fit for New York” or other markets, but “we can learn from each other.” Brown herself talked about Fisher’s “142 unique hyper-local websites” that “provide the super-service the TV station [KOMO] could not provide.” She says after four Seattle-area cops were gunned down near a coffee shop in Lakewood, Washington, Fisher quickly decided it needed to add a hyper-local site for Lakewood (“we turn that around fast”). Now it’s a heavily-visited site. Brown, a former executive with Gannett, Belo and Lee, also counsels broadcasters and the Internet world to recognize that “our reality and our interests are linked.” She says broadcasters need to stop dismissing ideas because ‘we've got it covered’ or ‘not invented here.’“ On the other side, "the Internet world needs to recognize the staying power of traditional broadcast television”, for instance.“ Fisher operates both TV and radio stations, and its CEO says radio and television need to "take our strong brands and use this megaphone and extend it to all mediums.”

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