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MSNBC president Phil Griffin is taking a page from Roger Ailes and Fox News and making sure his network stands for something.
From the Chicago Tribune
MSNBC boss Phil Griffin looks at what Roger Ailes created at Fox News Channel with no small amount of awe.
“He’s changed media. Everybody does news differently because Roger’s changed the world,” Griffin said over coffee on a visit to Chicago the other day. He was taking a break from making a case for his own cable network to ad buyers here to make the case for changes in the media landscape to a reporter. “Roger early on figured it out and was brilliant.”
With so much news coming from so many places, so often in much the same way, a leader distinguishes itself by anticipating what its audience wants and needs beyond the immediate headlines. In doing so, the most successful — and in cable, that’s Ailes’ FNC — will establish its own identity.
The critical lesson Griffin took from Ailes was that a news outlet that stands for something is one that consumers can stand behind and rally around.
That kind of allegiance is especially important in cable because it can be leveraged to help dictate the kind of fees networks can charge carriers per household they service, regardless of how many people actually watch. Who would dare drop a channel with such a passionate following?
“To be successful in this new age, you’ve got to create a community,” Griffin said. “You’ve got to have a place where people come. They’re like-minded. They share ideas. They want news, but they also get their headlines all day long on the Web, on their BlackBerrys, on their iPhones, on their iPads. It’s a different universe, and nobody uses one outlet as their only source.”
Fox News Channel offers news through the prisms of Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly. MSNBC does it with Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews. Whatever one may think of those people and their respective takes on the news, the important thing in this formula is that one does think of those people because of their takes on the news.
“We’re talking about the actions and passions of today, which tend to be political,” said Griffin, who has been with MSNBC since its 1996 launch and has had executive oversight of it for four years, the last two as its president.
Conservatives may not like what MSNBC stands for but at least Griffin realizes that what Fox has done is incredible. Fox has become the standard bearer when it comes to cable news dethroning longtime leader CNN and preciptating a decline that often has the network trailing it’s smaller sister HLN in the ratings.
But standing for something is only part of the equation. Fox combines news, opinion and entertainment and packages it in a way that attrracts viewers in droves compared to MSNBC and CNN which badly trail the network.
MSNBC may be trying ot style themselves as the anti-Fox when it comes to political opinion, but as long as they do they will be relegated to the role of also ran in a world that prefers the Fox viewpoint.
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About the author
Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.
7 Comments for MSNBC Chief Takes A Stand
What a total idiot. He DOES NOT GET it ….is right. The only thing he has to do is what journalism always had been……a watchdog over gov’t for the people. Have they not realized that the libs are a minority….= small viewership. DUH…….
No one is interested in additional cover for Obama and his czars…..we want to know what is really going on….and FNC rules with brilliance. I try cruising MSNBC just to see the crap they are talking about and I can’t even watch for 5 minutes. Maddcow and Olbermouth are disgusting, rude, unprofessional….Obama puppets. Thank God for the internet and the huge amount of objective reporting that we have access to. MSNBC should shut down….not beg the gov’t for a handout.
Both Griffin and Sconfeld (CNN) can say all they want—but as stated by others—they don’t get it—
You can quote ups and downs—but it’s the numbers that are important—
Check out this site for the actualsaa;
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/
I am waiting for MessNBC to go down in flames—I will be glad to dance on that grave!!!
With so much news coming from so many places, so often in much the same way, a leader distinguishes itself by anticipating what its audience wants and needs
Or a leader in news distinguishes itself by being honest or accurate………..nah.
The total (and admitted) bias of MSNBC is the cause of their residency in the ratings dungeon. That will only go on so long before the love of profits rears it’s ugly head and more intelligent folks take the helm!!!
Wes, I think it’s a shame that you would call a trashy, no-good outfit like MSNBC a trashy, no-good outfit. Us politically-corrct types NEVER point out the faults of fellow lefties.
Go to the back of the class.
{hanging head…walking to the back of the class} I am so sorry C.Roy, please forgive me, for I cannot be politically correct. LMAO
They need to give more substantive subjects to talk about, MSNBC topics are getting old…
Oooops, I forgot to raise my hand, I suppose I have to go the the principals office now. 
Griffin may be in awe of what Roger Ailes has done with FNC, but he still doesn’t get it, MSNBC has no balance…NONE! It is all ‘Political Opinion…All the Time’, that is not what Fox News has done. Fox is often the first on a news scene, breaking news first.
No one else covered Gibbs middle of the night presser regarding the NYC car bomb attempt (last night), finally calling it a ‘Terrorist Attempt’. Fox cut into their nightly re-runs to cover it live. They didn’t stop there, they (FNC) brought in anchors, on scene reporters, guests.
MSNBC is crap, and as long as they have the same people saying toeing the same old tired propaganda, they will never attract the advertises to keep the station alive. Too many of us worked hard over the years to get their advertises to leave with petition after petition of hundreds of thousands of names each.