How Innovation Thrives with a People-Centric Strategy

A Profile on Deb McDermott, CEO, Standard Media

This week I had the chance to talk with one of the nation’s leading female executives in communications, Deb McDermot, CEO of Standard Media and Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame Honoree. With a successful decades-long career in television broadcast management, Deb has a long list of turnaround stories and a track record for increasing investment in local journalism. With the hopeful merger between Standard Media and Tegna Inc., she is poised to lead the largest female-run broadcast company in the nation. Read on to learn more about Deb and her inspiring philosophies on leadership, public engagement and how this relates to the great opportunities ahead to invest in local communities.

Collier: Hello Deb! Thanks for taking the time to chat. So let’s start at the beginning. What is the origin story for how you arrived as one of the most transformative leaders in the field of communication and broadcasting?

McDermott: Thanks, Chelsea! I’m so glad to talk with you. I’d love to talk about where it all began. I grew up in rural South Dakota with four brothers. We had a big family in a small town - 37 cousins who all worked in small businesses. We were all hard wired to work hard and also do it in a way that was fun and mission driven. We really had a great time and so I always looked at work as a good thing.

I started off in journalism and this family-inspired work ethic is part of what landed me, at 27 years old, on a management track at a local television station in Lincoln, Nebraska. There was a desire to have more women in leadership roles as it was very much still a boys club. I had some great support from the station directors and it laid a solid foundation for my career.

I went on to Kansas City, Missouri and then to Nashville, Tennessee. There is a lot to love about each of these cities and I’ve had the chance to work with some really amazing people. Even though this field is known as a cut-throat business, the people I worked with, and still work with, have a “people-first philosophy”. That kind of commitment to core values helps everyone align on what is important. It’s easier to do the right thing with this shared understanding, even if it isn’t easy in the short term.

Collier: I’m so happy to hear, that in the era of seconds-long news cycles and sensationalized journalism, that a commitment to core values is such a driving force. What are some examples of this concept put into action?

McDermott: In the mid 90s, I had a chance to participate in really growing a station. The Dizzy in Los Angeles was selling because ABC couldn't have two stations in the market. We bought the station, invested in the amazing talent and doubled its value in five years. We went from a small bottom line to a large bottom line and it was the people who made that possible. Then I had the chance to work with an independent station that was really struggling. It was a labor of love as the economics were challenging. There I had the chance to see that, even when the numbers are tough, you still make the choice to invest in the stations and invest in the people. Mergers can be a good thing that can increase value if you always prioritize people. They are the ones that can put plans into action and really move the needle.

Collier: Who is “we”when you use that term?

McDermott: Haha. Yes, the we is Soo Kim. I had a the chance to work with him around 2013 during a merger. We clicked right away because we share the same idea about what it takes to make things work in tough times. You don’t slash and burn, you treat people with respect and form a team to navigate forward. Soo Kim has been a major strength for our company because his commitment is to making things better rather than tearing them down. He understands that growth will come when you invest in people.

In times of change, we know that almost everybody is going to ask “Are you gonna cut jobs.” So the first thing we do is explain, “No, we never go in and cut. We go in and build.” We don't put employees in a box, we give them a platform to shine. And the positive results speak for themselves. I especially enjoy working with young people who have never been general managers before. We put them in, they start running these television stations and they're knocking it out of the park. We spend a lot of time coaching and training to help each team member be better.

Collier: Especially coming out of the global pandemic, we have the opportunity to do things differently based on what we’ve experienced and learned. People are ready for work environments where you don't have to fit in a box and you don't have to use the old rules.

McDermott: I’ll share an example of how that is true. When Covid started, our general manager in Lincoln called me and said “You know what? Our kids aren't going to school right now and we need to find a way to help them learn.” So we took down one of our paid channels and dedicated it for the school system so they could teach content. The school was so excited and they used the station as a broadcast classroom. Then in the Fall, they used to share ball games for all sports and genders. That’s community.

Collier: What a cool example that proves that every single person in every organization can be a positive catalyst for change. It may not be the most obvious thing, but if people in a community trust each other, then you start to have these kinds of untraditional models unfold about how to increase access.

McDermott: That reminds me of another example in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. One of the towers went down and we learned that, when it was originally constructed in the 1950s, it was located on sacred tribal land. We engaged with the tribe who asked if the tower could be relocated off of their land. And so of course that is what we did. The cost was significant - more than $1M - but that wasn’t the point. We moved that tower because it was the right thing to do. We want to build trust and earn that trust. This is how we approach things.

Collier: So how are you taking this forward into the next project?

McDermott: We are in the process of acquiring the television broadcaster Tegna. This is a huge deal and we’re so excited about it. We are bringing our people first philosophy, our proven track record and we’re making sure that we prove our commitment to diversity. More than 50 percent of our board will be women and half will be minorities. And again, this is another example where doing what’s right is good for business. It’s who we are and it is what we do.

Another fun thing about this station is that there is a DC newsroom. This is a great opportunity to make sure that local stations really have access to all of the information that's coming out of Washington. So we can share what's going on in the nation's capital and make sure somebody there who can localize it so that everyone can understand what's going on.

We’re also really investing in digital and streaming and mobile. We’re trying to build entirely new ways to connect with our audiences. It’s a really important part of what we need to do going forward. This is just another example of our long-term, community-focused approach.

Summary

It was a real pleasure to talk with Deb McDermott, who is transforming her industry while also providing an example of ethics in leadership. I’m inspired by her commitment to invest in people and encourage innovation in local broadcast journalism.

Chelsea McCulloughAugust 16, 2022