Leading a local media company is not for the faint of heart. Everywhere you look, there is change — technology, regulation, audiences, partners, employees. In these rough seas, we have a light to help guide us through the storm. It is a focus on mission.
Plenty of businesses have written mission statements, but few have the kind of North Star shared by a media company practicing journalism.
The E.W. Scripps Co. mission statement says, “We do well by doing good — informing, entertaining and engaging the audiences we serve.” Every business decision we make will be better if we keep that mission in mind.
No matter how your company puts it into words your purpose is likely to make your communities better, keep people informed, and hold the powerful accountable. Democracy itself depends on our ability to meet the task. Still, we often lose sight of our purpose in the hustle and bustle.
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Clarifying our mission creates a touchstone for better business decisions. At Scripps, we have been evaluating resources at our stations, prioritizing field journalism and increasing our investment in newsgathering. Does that mean we set lofty goals and do not worry about the business fundamentals? The opposite is true. Because we must have margin for the mission, our focus on the bottom line should be relentless. Both cuts and investments can be guided by our “why.” Our station in Nashville invests in investigative journalism. Our chief investigative reporter, Phil Williams, has been honored in recent months with the DuPont Award, the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism and the Lifetime Achievement Award from RTDNA. John Oliver featured him on Last Week Tonight. Phil has reported on everything from lead in drinking water to sexual assault on school buses, but his specialty is government accountability and abuses of power. He recently received an oversized thank you card, signed by local leaders, grateful that he revealed a candidate’s ties to white supremacists. Both the honors and card confirm that we are helping our neighbors and being true to our mission.
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Another key area of our mission-focused investment is literacy for children. Nearly all employees give to our “If You Give a Child a Book …” campaign. The Scripps Howard Fund and our viewers make contributions and the Nashville Predators match our donations. We have given more than 50,000 books to students in high-need schools in Tennessee. It is the first time many of them have owned a book.
In a less traditional example of business decisions guided by mission, WTVF commissioned a downtown Nashville mural called “Embrace.” It features imagery designed to encourage caring and community. NewsChannel 5 describes the mural as a gift to the city we love, and the city has responded. Everyone from ordinary citizens to celebrities has taken and posted photos of the mural.
Clarity of mission takes more than a mural. It requires living by your touchstones daily and making sure your team does the same. This is a key strategy to attract and maintain a talented team when talent sometimes seems scarce. If you ask people early in their media careers how they chose their path, most will
say they wanted to make a difference. Team members, tenured and new, likely came in the door full of enthusiasm to do work that matters. When we stop pointing out their impact and reminding them of mission, their fire can die out. Station leaders have the power to rekindle that fire, making decisions that support it, and clarifying each person’s role in the team’s highest calling.
Making It Better
In Nashville, leaders talk about mission and impact during the hiring process, and keep it front and center in staff meetings and coaching conversations. Not coincidentally, the station’s rate of turnover is low with remarkable tenure in key positions.
No person or business gets it right all the time, but we share a basic desire to leave an imprint, to know we have made things better. When we align our strategies and teams around the importance of our contributions, we will tap into energy that improves our business performance, elevates our work and gives us strength. Nashville’s June Carter Cash was a famously strong woman. When people asked how she was doing, she often replied, “I’m just trying to matter.”
Same here, June. Same here.
