Journal Broadcast Group: Mixed Media
Media-Entertainment
Written by John Zorabedian   
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Journal Broadcast Group: Mixed Media - American Executive - RedCoat Publishing
In the new media environment, broadcast companies need deep and broad connections to their markets.
As businesses spread their advertising dollars around in search of consumers in a complex media landscape, media companies have been forced to diversify their holdings or lose out on the rush of advertising to the Internet. Newspapers have been the hardest hit by new media, but even television broadcasters have felt the pinch of dropping ratings.

Journal Broadcast Group: Mixed Media - American Executive - RedCoat Publishing
Douglas Kiel, Vice Chairman and CEO
To overcome these challenges, Journal Broadcast Group, Inc. (JBG), owner of 11 television stations in the Midwest, West, Southwest, and Florida, also owns one or more radio stations in several of those markets. With interactive Web sites branded to its stations and featuring content provided by its robust television news divisions, the company presents a range of platforms to meet advertisers’ needs.

The broadcast group, based in Milwaukee, Wis., is part of Journal Communications, Inc., a publicly traded company whose businesses include newspaper publishing, printing, interactive media, and direct marketing.

“There are more media choices than ever before. Our strategy as a company is to be very hyper-local,” said Douglas Kiel, vice chairman and CEO of JBG. “Even though we have television and radio stations in many markets around the country, our focus is to get deeper in those markets using our cross-platform strategy.”

With its strong presence in booming cities such as Las Vegas, Nev. and Tucson, Ariz., and deep roots in its home base of Milwaukee where it owns the largest daily newspaper, the company has developed a strategy of developing comprehensive and interconnected media options, Kiel said.

“We have a solution-based selling model,” he said. “On the product side, we have a marketing and product model that focuses on our people getting to know the market and serving the market, rather than some cookie-cutter approach that we decide in the corporate headquarters in Milwaukee and just move across the country.”

Local and interactive
Connecting to consumers through local content, JBG’s television stations produce several hours of daily news coverage and, through its companion Web sites, allow consumers to react and respond to what’s happening in their communities. Last year the company’s stations in Milwaukee and Las Vegas launched a feature called YouNewsTV, which streams user-submitted videos.

“There’s a low barrier of entry for people who want to write or blog or put something up on the Internet,” Kiel said, explaining why the media industry has grown so competitive. “In the markets we’re in, we try to build as many platforms as we can. We build companion Web sites that we leverage off the brand-building capabilities we have on television or radio, or in the case of Milwaukee, our newspaper, where we have a very robust site.”

The company recently launched a free classified advertising Web site in Omaha, Neb. in an attempt to generate the kind of traffic that has made Craigslist one of the biggest Web sites in the world.

“We use our radio and TV stations to promote it,” Kiel said of the site, called ONow.com. “It’s brand new, but we’re trying to be very creative in developing digital solutions and digital platforms.”

Connected workplace
JBG’s business strategy hinges on the ability of its employees to understand their markets and react with efficiency and speed to events in their communities. This requires a culture of collaboration and an environment that produces it.

“We want to create an environment where people work hard, move fast, and always build an ethical business culture that cares about the markets we do business in,” Kiel said.

The consummation of this concept is JBG’s new television studio and offices for KTNV in Las Vegas, which opened in early January. With wide-open spaces and no physical barriers between departments, or between managers and employees, the building plan facilitates interaction and cooperation.

“We kind of went worst to first because we had an old building and now we have this wonderful building,” Kiel said. “It’s an open building so people can see how others do their jobs and can work together. It’s all a piece of creating business environment that can be not only inspiring to people but where they can be proud to work and feel they can do great work.”

The station’s former home was more than 30 years old and inadequate for the needs of a bustling news department in one of the country’s fastest-growing cities. With television broadcasts switching from analog to digital formats in 2009, the building features cutting-edge technology as well.

“Wherever we remodel or build a new building, we focus on creating an environment that isn’t lavish at all,” Kiel said. “Whether it’s clients or employees, people can walk in and say, ‘You know, things are happening here; there’s a great future; I can work well here.’”

Designed in collaboration with the architectural firm of Reese & Associates, which has designed dozens of broadcast studios around the country, the building is, in a sense, a symbol of where JBG is trying to go with its business—fast, interconnected, and growth-oriented.

“It really is a step-off point that allows us to take advantage of media opportunities in the future here in Las Vegas,” Kiel said. “The environment for media is becoming hypercompetitive, so all these little edges add up to a successful business.”
 
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