It's Time to Meet the Neighbors...

Open The Doors & Let Them In…

Let me start this week with an embarrassing admission. Neva (my uber talented, beautiful, and remarkable wife of 37 years) and I are borderline reclusive. Well, me more than her but I’ve definitely been a bad influence in this regard. How much so? Um…well…we’ve lived in the same house for the past 19 years and, it pains me to say, have never really met our neighbors. We’ve exchanged waves and the occasional “hey, how are you?” but I couldn’t tell you their names or anything about who they are if my life depended on it. Why the confession? Because it serves as a pretty decent analogy of the relationship most media outlets have with their community and even their internal work families. And, in a classic “do as I say, not as I do” moment I’m telling you, that’s gotta change.

So, it was Michael Lewis’s book, “The Premonition,” that got me thinking about this anew. In it he discusses the notion that one day historians will look back at how America was organized and wonder how we were able to govern ourselves even a little bit. He refers pointedly to the practice of creating specific boxes (or silos) to address singular problems or needs and never allowing for cross pollination or overlap of the resources contained within each one. As he points out, isn’t it likely that at least some of the solutions created in one box might be useful to the folks in another? Isn’t it possible that a person working in the Department of Agriculture might have a great idea for a situation FEMA might be confronting? Seems logical but, in government and so many private companies, it just doesn’t work that way.

The media business, news in particular, is organized a little like Lewis’s description of the United States government. It has always been a sequestered business. Very much a closed loop that’s tough to get into from the outside or even from other parts of the internal organization it’s a part of. As such, it’s mostly insular. Shut off from the people and energy that give it relevance. In today’s environment, that’s a major and, if not checked, fatal problem.

The Greatest Resource Never Used…

We’ve talked many, many times in this space about the need to know the audience. To listen and engage with them to get a better sense of what they need from us. Frankly, we’re still no where close to being good at doing that but even more shocking is the fact that we also, often times, ignore the audience that lives inside the building with us, aka our non-news co-workers.

Case in Point #1:

Pixar, the now legendary animation studio, has a very interesting corporate philosophy regarding the roles of its employees. On day one of a new hire’s tenure they’re brought into the company’s theater and asked to sit in the fifth row - (side note: according to film directors, that row is the best place in any theater to watch a movie). Seated there are new film directors, IT professionals, janitors, baristas from the coffee shop, world class animators, interns, and every classification in between. The primary message delivered to each class of newbies is this: “Everyone in this theater today is first and foremost a filmmaker. That is our company’s purpose and a part of your responsibility.” Everyone at Pixar has a voice and each and every contribution is heard and evaluated no matter where it comes from.

So my question to you would be this: How often do you invite the engineers, sales people, janitorial staff, etc. into your editorial meetings or strategy sessions? Do you seek out their thoughts, opinions, and feedback, and actually hear it? Another one would be, how many times have you complained that no one in your building is actually consuming the product you produce? There’s a direct correlation between the answers to those two questions. People care about what they have a stake in. In other words, I’m far less likely to reduce my job to “means to an end” status if I have a little skin in the game. Keep that in mind as we move forward. But, most importantly here, is the fact that you have a built in community group - a huge resource - at your disposal anytime you choose to engage with it. Real people living literally inside the building who have a perspective on life that’s probably a little more normal than anyone residing in the newsroom. That’s not a swipe at newsies, but let’s face facts. News people tend to be detached, jaded, and bit myopic. It’s the nature of a business that requires a degree of detachment for survival.

Oh No! There’s Somebody At The Door…

Now, let’s talk about your audience. News consumption, courtesy the advent of social media, has become an interactive exercise for most people whether you like it or not. We share. We like. We comment, and we discuss. We now have a role to play and some ownership to claim, if we choose, in the news and information we consume. It changes the entire calculus of the relationship. We gravitate to those platforms that provide that level of inclusion, the opportunity to be part of the team, and we drop those that don’t. But let’s back up for a second. In truth, this behavioral trend was not a result of a Mark Zuckerberg creation. Mark and friends just tapped into a very old and fertile vein. As we’ll talk about in just a minute, the need to belong and participate is literally in our DNA and has been for somewhere around 2.5 million years.

Case in Point #2

I recently helped create and develop a live talk show for a streaming network designed to be a discussion of the stories in the zeitgeist on any given day. At show launch we casually included viewer comments here and there, like many news shows do. You know…“Let’s see what Millie57 has to say about this.”

“Millie57 says - I think we should lock up all the politicians and throw away the key!”

“Thanks Millie57, insightful stuff!” Safe. Sanitary. A minimal and largely inadequate acknowledgement of the audience and their role in our show. And then one day, a couple of last minute guest cancellations forced us to strap on the tap shoes and dance. In a “mother of invention” moment - or maybe it was the equivalent of a universal bitch slap to get our attention - we were forced to turn to the audience for help. On that day, with clinched teeth and that familiar knot of pending doom in our stomachs, we made our viewers the stars of the show. The host started engaging both on camera and off with the commenters. Audience members engaged right back with other and the host resulting in a palpable surge of energy. All of a sudden, a fairly dim bulb of a show had been transformed into a concert style light show and, in the process, a new format, and more importantly, a thriving community was born. The viewers of the program now refer to it as “their or our show.” They greet each other before the show starts. They reach out to regular members of the community who haven’t yet logged in and then they spar with, salute, and encourage each other as well as the host. It’s alive, organic, and relevant as hell…a sight to behold.

The Caveman & Woman in All of Us…

We are social creatures who need a community. It’s literally in our DNA harkening back to our hunter/gatherer ancestors in the Serengeti. In those days, between the wild animals and the elements, going it alone was a certain death sentence. Survival, literally, depended on being part of a group. And, while there are no more Saber Toothed Tigers lying in wait in the nearby bushes, life today has its own unique trials and tribulations that continue to trigger our ancient impulse to be social. Knowing we all have this reality pre-programmed in our very existence makes those who gave us Facebook, Twitter, et al, seem a bit more sinister I think. Kind of on the order of someone offering an alcoholic a bottle of Jack Daniels, but I guess we’ll just chalk it up to opportunistic, maniacal genius.

Remember the point made earlier about what happens when people have “skin in the game.” Same applies here. An audience member made a part of the show, a team member, so to speak, feels not only a sense of belonging but also ownership. When we own, we protect. We promote. We trust and remain loyal. But, make no mistake, this needs to go further than engaging through social media. Building the kind of community needed by media today means including them in the process - becoming partners with them. Soliciting and acting on their ideas. Seeking out their feedback and criticism. Listening to the issues and events impacting their lives and benefiting from the context and perspective typically missing in the vacuum of the sequestered newsroom. I know what you’re thinking. OH MY GOD, HOW ICKY! - akin to making me invite my heretofore anonymous neighbors over for Thanksgiving Dinner (wicked cold chill happening right now).

Bots & Trolls Be Damned…

Dealing with the public, getting outside our own loop, is a scary proposition any way you cut it. I can’t tell you how many newsrooms I’ve been in where the mere suggestion of turning on comments on Facebook or the website prompted wide spread wailing and gnashing of teeth. The notion of actually inviting the physical personification of those people inside the building would, no doubt, have led to a mass stampede to the exit. There will be bots, trolls, naysayers and those that want to make sure you know just how badly “you suck!” So deal with it. After all, the world is now very used to such behavior and the bottom line is if you remain insulated from your audience it sadly guarantees that you’ll one day (sooner rather than later) die alone, completely irrelevant, and without ever having gotten to know your neighbors. It’s time we (you more than me, but whatever) do something about that.