Business and Motivational Speaker Scott McKain…You have to start now!

You have to start now!

As you know if you’ve heard me speak or read my books, I’m from a very small town in southern Indiana (Crothersville, to be specific). It’s about thirty-five miles north of Louisville, Kentucky – so the major newspaper we received in our area was the “Courier-Journal,” then owned by the Bingham family. The Bingham empire held a cluster of prominent media properties — The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times newspapers, plus WHAS Radio and WHAS Television.

According to Wikipedia, the papers were originally purchased by Col. Robert Worth Bingham, using money from an inheritance left to him by his second wife, Mary Flagler (herself the widow of famous railroad magnate Henry Flagler). Then, Barry Bingham, Sr. used the profits from the newspapers to start the radio and television stations.

The Binghams put ethics and journalism first. When Barry Bingham, Jr. took over for his father, he was a perfectionist for journalistic ethics and public service that triumphed over profits. The Courier Journal won three Pulitzer Prizes, and Bingham, Jr. also took the companies into prescient but unprofitable ventures such as personal computer retailing and tele-text services (a forerunner to today’s online services and Internet).

When I was a free-lance, part-time entertainment reporter and reviewer at WHAS-TV back in 1983, the then-news anchor, Jim Mitchell, told me, “The owners of this station want you to do it right – and they’ll give you the resources to make it happen.” However, after a contentious squabble between siblings, Barry Sr. decided to sell the holdings. Gannett got the newspapers, Providence Broadcasting purchased the television station, and Clear Channel bought the radio outlets. And, everything changed.

Seeing the closing of major newspapers in Seattle and Denver, the enormous losses that Tribune Corporation is taking on the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, and the fact that Microsoft’s CEO is being asked if they – of all companies – are interested in buying the New York Times has illuminated for me this important point: No community or industry is impervious to the revolution that we are seeing.

We’re now getting our news delivered to our laptops and BlackBerrys by a seemingly infinite number of sources. The first reports of the US Airways crash landing into the Hudson River in New York City came not from a news service, but instead on Twitter!

What does this have to do with you and your organization? Simply this – if an industry as entrenched with history and profitability as a major newspaper can now find itself on the brink of extinction – and if an extraordinary number of new competitors can spring up almost instantly with a fraction of the overhead – can you possibly begin to consider yourself immune?

You have to start NOW. Stand out and move up. Explore – and then, exploit – what makes you distinct during this challenging marketplace. It will become your launching pad for more success in the better times to come.

To inquire about Business and Motivational Speaker Scott McKain availability to speak at your next meeting or event click here.

Order Scott McKain’s Brand New Book