Mark Thompson says he likes to tackle “big, juicy strategic puzzles” — first when he ran the BBC, then The New York Times, and now as CEO of NCS.
The new job may be his hardest one but: NCS is an enormous model that also makes some huge cash, but it surely’s a cable TV community, and cable TV networks are in big trouble. So Thompson is looking for a solution in streaming, with a brand new service that will provide you with nearly every little thing NCS exhibits you on TV, for $7 a month.
The most blatant query concerning the streaming service’s launch is whether or not there are various individuals who care sufficient about NCS to pay for it individually — as a substitute of as a part of a cable TV bundle, the place it has lived all its life. The subsequent query is the way you get individuals who aren’t paying for information to begin doing that, particularly when there’s a lot on the market for free.
As Thompson notes, folks as soon as stated the identical factor about The New York Times — which used to offer itself away for free on-line. Now it has greater than 11 million digital subscribers.
Thompson’s challenges aren’t simply product-related, although. He additionally has to take care of continuous critiques that his community is simply too left-leaning. But it is completely unclear whether or not there is a significant viewers for down-the-middle information anymore. And looming over every little thing is a transaction that might seemingly give him a brand new proprietor within the close to future — maybe the world’s second-richest man and his son, maybe someone else.
I talked to Thompson about all of that in the newest episode of my Channels podcast. Below are edited excerpts of our dialog.
Peter Kafka: Right now, NCS makes most of its cash from charges that cable TV prospects pay to cable TV corporations. You’re attempting to launch a mannequin the place I pay NCS immediately. Where is that this going?
Mark Thompson: We suppose we have got one of many best-known — by some measures, the best-known and most generally trusted — information manufacturers on this planet.
Our authentic legacy platform of standard pay TV within the US on cable has stood the check of time for many years. But we’re now seeing a really huge viewers transition — from that platform to others, and from a set mode of consumption, usually the tv set, to plenty of completely different modes. Small screens, massive screens, brief length, lengthy length, on the transfer, and generally leaning again at dwelling.
To preserve NCS robust, we have now to go after our audiences the place they’re now — and feed them, give them the service of breaking information and every little thing else NCS stands for, in methods and on gadgets that work for them.
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You’re charging $7 a month. Who are you concentrating on? People who’ve cable however need to lower the twine? People who’ve already lower the twine or by no means had it to start with?
We suppose one thing like 80 million Americans are in households who’ve lower the twine since COVID. Our market analysis suggests about 18 million of them say they’d be very thinking about receiving and paying for NCS as a stand-alone subscription. That’s an preliminary target market.
Seven {dollars} a month is less expensive than different streaming companies — but it surely’s far more than the free TV information now you can get on-line from the likes of CBS and NBC. How will you get folks to pay?
That was the argument — very vocal on the time — about why a digital subscription service at The New York Times would not work. I imagine that sure issues round model and high quality and distinctiveness [matter], and also you really should ship it. But for those who can ship on these issues … I feel we basically proved at The New York Times that there are scalable subscription fashions.
You may say, “Well, how do you know it’s going to work for TV news?” I might say I do not suppose anybody’s actually tried it correctly in TV information but.
If this works prefer it did on the Times, you’ll eventually be relying on consumers to directly fund NCS. Can that assist the price of making reside, high-quality tv?
Yes, at scale. The key factor is, are you able to scale an viewers to get the economics to work?
Will you must make cuts to make that work?
Our head rely’s gone up since I’ve been at NCS. We are going to wish to in all probability proceed to rent on the digital aspect. Will we want, over time, to chop some prices on the linear aspect? The reply might be sure.
But that is extra of a shifting of price. And a change in expertise combine. I at all times suppose in these conversations, there is a threat that the cuts get famous, and the brand new hires and the funding does not. I do not imagine that, so far as I can see, there’s going to be a big internet discount within the quantity of people that work at NCS.
Your predecessor said he was trying to make NCS centrist, as a result of critics — together with John Malone, the investor who has a stake in NCS-owner Warner Bros. Discovery — suppose NCS is simply too far to the left. Do you are feeling such as you nonetheless should battle that label?
What we are attempting to supply is a type of journalism the place we maintain ourselves to account for really looking for out goal information, to carry them as rapidly and precisely as we will to the general public, after which to have measured and courteous debates about what which may imply.
What do you make of CBS News hiring Bari Weiss, supposedly to deal with bias in its reporting?
I might reasonably patiently wait to see how CBS News develops, after which make an evaluation of it.
Bari, by the best way, is a very attention-grabbing determine. Thoughtful, and to not be stereotyped in the best way she usually is within the present discourse about CBS. I might say that she’s an attention-grabbing type of particular person.
There’s an excellent likelihood your proprietor, Warner Bros. Discovery, will be sold. How do you handle with that uncertainty?
You could have observed lately that the entire of media goes by means of change. Things are mixed, they’re dis-combined, offered, purchased and offered, and the remainder of it. As I generally say to my colleague, for those who’re trying for a lifetime of full certainty …
The smartest thing NCS can do to guarantee its future is considered one of high-quality journalism, is [practice] genuinely truthful journalism — coping with delicate and troublesome tales in a approach which is fair-minded and treats everybody concerned with dignity. That’s the very best factor we do.
The second good factor we will do is proceed to develop a compelling plan for our digital future, and reveal our potential to succeed in digital audiences and have interaction them.
I will not ask you for those who suppose Paramount proprietor David Ellison ought to personal NCS. But what sort of proprietor is a perfect proprietor for NCS?
Over the final two years I’ve labored for the house owners and board of Warner Bros. Discovery, and for [WBD CEO] David Zaslav, who’ve been supportive of the technique, invested in NCS’s future and have [been serious about] NCS’s editorial independence, together with independence from them — permitting me to be the place the buck stops by way of editorial decision-making. They’ve honored all of that.
I might check any proprietor not on normal perfection, however a dedication to editorial independence and a dedication to constructing.