With the recent installing of Dan Abrams to run the MSNBC channel, it has a lot of people scratching their heads. Abrams has had no experience in management and it shocked all of those working for MSNBC.
I know one of my operating principle in life is that when something makes no sense at all, there's something going on that I don't know about. This has to be the case here. There are a lot of messages being sent with Abram's promotion.
The first message is that MSNBC promotes from within. That's one positive message sent to the staff. At the same time, an underperforming editorial staff seems to have been sent a message also to get their attention. Evidently it has.
Abrams seemingly impressed NBC News president Steve Capus by letting him know what he thought about the channel, the result was his promotion. One change he mentioned and will get is to bring more breaking news coverage during the day hours.
Capus specifically is moving toward making prime time the top priority because that is where the big marketing dollars are targeted to. Word is that some of the resources from "Dateline" will be introduced into the prime time slots.
Another message that has evidently been sent in all of this is that General Electric (GE) is reiterating its commitment to being number one or two in any of its businesses. Putting Abrams in strengthens that message. Why this is important is that the network was actually turning around and beginning to make some headway. One would think that because of that they would stay on the course they're on.
But you have to respect General Electric here in that they won't alter one of their major operating principles. They will be number one or two in their market period; not a growing third or fourth.
The message sent was loud and clear when it was explained that MSNBC president Rick Kaplan was replaced with Abrams and Griffin because the network was beginning to make progress and climbing. Who gets rid of someone that is growing a company or division? This is one of those things that means a message has been sent.
I like what MSNBC has done here. It takes courage and guts to do what they did. Everybody across all of General Electric has heard the message, you can count on that.
The combination of Abrams and Griffin should be very interesting to watch to see how they do in these months ahead.
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