The first meeting was held in May with the following members of the committee:
Mark Lund – Executive Vice President, NBC Universal
Rich Cerussi – President and General Manager, KNTV
Ken Little – EVP, Technology & Operations, NCC
Nick Garramone – SVP, eBusiness and Research, NCC
Kathleen Keefe – VP of Sales, Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc.
Kevin Gallagher – EVP, Director Local Activation, Starcom
Kathy Crawford – President, Local Broadcast, MindShare
Harold Geller – SVP, Digital Initiatives, AAAA
The members of the committee determined that in order for us to proceed, we need to determine where the “pain” is in the process and therefore, the committee will be evaluating the use of a Six Sigma consultant to help with that determination. The rest of the team volunteered staff members to participate in this exploration as well.
The next meeting will be held in June.
The Reinvention Process aims to receive electronically exact times from the radio and television stations, downloading them into a buy sheet, auto-matching them to Nielsen data—and subsequently PPM data—which, in reality, creates an invoice. And then auto-paying off of that. Spot TV and Spot Radio are main targets for improvement. The Reinvention Project suggests that we need to cut down on the labor intention that broadcast has now gotten us to. It will create more efficient buying, and buying on the new digital multicast channels for radio and TV without hiring more staff.
Kathy Crawford is MindShare President/Local Broadcast
