Even if baseball fans all think they could do a better job than their favorite team’s manager, the impact of the manager’s leadership cannot be understated. The same goes for city managers and for local television news directors.
From personal experience working in the industry, both as a news director and as a corporate leader overseeing product across multiple newsrooms, I know that any change in leadership at the news director level can set a news organization back by nine months or more. Unless there’s a trained and mentored successor ready for promotion, recruiting alone to replace the outgoing news director can take 45 to 60 days, and sometimes up to six months. Then often, there’s relocation; moving in; learning the new community and company; building connections; surveying talent, strategy, and execution. The cost of replacing a news director is high, even if an internal promotion is warranted. News directors set critical vibes; any disruption, even just to vibes, can create discomfort and unsettlement, and disrupt momentum toward newsroom or station goals.
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