I raise this fact to help save the newspaper that everyone I know reads every day: The New York Times. The Gray Lady needs a strong dose of entrepreneurial thinking, intrapreneurship, or the like. How do I know? Because the Time’s Executive Editor Bill Keller is acting like Howard Beale (Network): Railing, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” What’s worse, like Beale, Keller is failing to offer so much as a cocktail napkin-sized blueprint for constructive change.
Keller’s worst moments of late have been lobbing verbal grenades at a competitor who is, if nothing else, defying the model of journalism that made the New York Times the gold standard: Fox News Channel. In a series of exceptionally pointed statements about FNC Keller claimed that their reporting made American political discourse more “strident” and “polarized” than ever. At a New York Press Club event Keller escalated his attack: “I think if you’re a regular viewer of Fox News, you’re among the most cynical people on planet Earth.” Right or wrong it seems that Keller is ranting out of frustration, eschewing the sense of noblesse oblige that built the reputation of The New York Times.
Ironically, one of Keller’s most respected Op Ed columnists is taking a completely different tack. While cursing the darkness (it’s his job), Bob Herbert adopted an unusually directive and entrepreneurial tone in a piece published yesterday (The Master Key). Sounding like a VC who funded an entrepreneurial incubator Herbert argued that our nation’s failure to address our crumbling infrastructure might result in our becoming a second-tier world power.
We’ve moved so far from that forward-looking, can-do philosophy of prior eras that there is a danger that we really are incapable of preventing the nation’s infrastructure from deteriorating further. We’ve seen how catastrophic that can be… If there is such a thing as a master key to a better American future, investment in the nation’s infrastructure would be it… That is how you build the foundation for new and innovative industries.
In The Interpretation of Dreams (1913) Freud noted, “An intimate friend and a hated enemy have always been indispensable requirements for my emotional life…” Bill Keller obviously knows how to care for, and be cared for by, intimate friends; you don’t climb the professional ladder like he did if you don’t. All he needs now is to use his hated enemies as an entrepreneur would.
Give The Devil His Due. Mr. Keller got an MBA from Wharton but seems to have missed the lecture that defined the essence of entrepreneurship: Improvement, not invention. Oreo didn’t invent the choclate sandwich crème cookie, Hydrox did. Oreo just improved it and marketed the heck out of it. Keller needs to see what FNC is doing better than The Times, then strategize how to out-do his rival.
Capture Markets, Don’t Alienate Them. Keller attacked FNC’s audience. Why? Win them over with, “See the world through our eyes” messages that make people yearn to be better informed. Every professional journalist I know has moments, these days, when they curse the fact that the Internet has let everyone into the party. Folks like Keller, with authentic, hard-earned credentials, must feel this pain acutely. But Katie cannot bar the door, and you sure as hell don’t repair lost brand loyalty by name-calling.
Know Thyself. Socrates argued that the unexamined life is not worth living; Keller is violating this irrefutable wisdom. He is at the acme of his field, well respected and able to define what millions of Americans read and hear about each day. But he is also acting like a snob when he vilifies enemies rather than demonstrating their flaws and advocating for the superiority of his worldview. As a former shrink I can virtually guarantee that Mr. Keller’s aggressive outbursts are driven by a frustration that has nothing to do with FNC. Were I his coach, I would suggest that he determine what’s gnawing at him and address that issue before railing about those who practice journalism in ways he deplores. It Keller fails to follow this advice I fear The Times may go the way of our nation’s infrastructure.