Name: MSNBC President Rashida Jones on the rise of digital platforms and what it means for cable
Uploaded: 2023-05-26
Duration: 16 min 32 s
Description: Rashida Jones on what it took to be the first black woman to lead a major cable news network and what she sees for the future of cable.

Rashida Jones on what it took to be the first black woman to lead a major cable news network and what she sees for the future of cable.

MSNBC President Rashida Jones on the rise of digital platforms and what it means for cable

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Rashida Jones on the rise of digital platforms

Hello, everyone. Good evening. I'm Ruth UMA leadership editor at Fortune and I'm pleased to kick off our featured discussion of the night rising to the occasion is our MP W theme this year. Taking on that big job or new challenge is not only a personal achievement, but it can also have a great meaning to those you lead and into your industry as a whole. Tonight's feature speaker has accomplished one of those iconic first becoming the first black woman to lead a major cable news network. It's an honor to have her with us tonight. Please join me in. Welcome to the stage, MSNBC. President Rata Jones. Thank you. Of course. Welcome Mahia. Thank you so much for joining us. You could be at home right now watching Joy Reed, but they are with us here this evening and we're so delighted to have you. We have a number of mentees in the audience. So I want to kick off by discussing your ascension at MSNBC. Uh a bit of context. You spent your childhood in early childhood in York, Pennsylvania, small town in the middle of this very small, oldest of three, dad's a truck driver. Mother runs a cultural arts facility not to be reductive or glib here. How did you get to the top? I will, I will, um, at times remind myself you're still that girl that like used to walk down South George Street in York, which is nine square miles home of the peppermint patty if you've had one of those. And, um, and I do think about what if I knew back then where I would be today. And, and, and so the fast forward to the today piece of it, um, despite the fact that I grew up in a family that didn't necessarily have a lot, they pushed us, they encouraged us. I will tell you, there is no one who is a bigger fan of Rashida Jones and my mother there is, and it could be the, the smallest achievement. You are so great. You got an A minus on that test. It's like mom, you know, there are a pluses. No, no, no, no. And my dad was always very encouraging and, and kind of set this expectation of, and he would say this to us often. And I, I find myself thinking about it often. If a person can do it, then you can do it. And if you can't do it, then explain to me why other people can do it and you can't, by the time you do all of that, it's like I'll just do it. And so, so I grew up in a family where there was no excuse not to try, there was no excuse not to be ambitious. Um I'm the oldest of three. So I, you know, they, some people use the word bossy, I use leader. I was, I was, I was always in a situation. Thank you for oldest, right? And I was always in a situation where I had, I felt personal reward, I felt personally rewarded by being successful. And so I think the combination of my family and the support and the encouragement I just found, you know, value. I remember working at Pizza Hut and if I can get those pizzas done faster than everyone else that was success. Like I always just kind of had this drive and then the, the piece of that is I also very much understood the value of raising your hand and volunteering for things and, and putting yourself in rooms that maybe you're not familiar with and, and, and people don't expect you to be there. And I think the combination of that is what helps fuel me and it's what helps kind of propel, push me today. I don't want to dismiss the talent piece, but it's also not lost on me that your appointment to MS NBC president early 2021 coincided with a period of social unrest upheaval. Um, and certainly a period in time where the media industry was looking to course correct. If you will. Do you think that societal shift played a role, essentially talent coincided with preparation coincided with that social unrest. I think what it did is it allowed businesses and companies to broaden how they defined strength, success and talent. And so part of my shift into this role was after my boss Cesar Conde, who is a Latino man in a very high position that you don't see many of in this country. He was moved into his position seven months before we had the first conversation about this. And so I think it was as companies look at broadening their scope of where they find leaders coupled with a leader who was also a person of color and understood the life experience piece. It just opened the door. And I think, you know, when, when, when I think about kind of that moment at that time, when we were talking about it at the table, a lot of my focus was how do I prepare myself? So when the opportunity comes up, I'm ready, how do I stay ready? So I don't have to get ready. And I think all of those things coming together, organizations seeing the possibility, having a leader who is a person of color, who was willing, I won't even say willing because that I think that diminishes it. But but who had a better clear perspective of where strong leaders come from and then also being ready for the job. MSNBC is obviously known for its on air talents, its analytical takes, political commentary, social commentary has in many ways been sullied. If you will, by this perception that it's created in a hyper polarized society and fuel in discord, you however have argued forcefully in support of the role of commentary in journalism. So I have to ask you what is this role in American discourse in American democracy more broadly? Sure, I think we have to be comfortable with focusing on the truth and that's what our focus is and sometimes that comes through informed. And I think that's very important. It's got to be based in, in, in fact, in journalism, but informed political commentary in a world where we're pretending that all things are equal and every side is equal. I think, I think that's dangerous. And so our focus is, how do we continue to shine a light on the truth? How do we continue to prioritize democracy? How do we continue to allow the life experiences of the very diverse pool of talent that you, that you mentioned on our air? All of that stuff is, is um adds, adds to the experience, it adds to the value of the content. If this was just a matter of, of Xs and Os, like you can get that content anywhere. What I think we, what I, what we do that's unique. And I think it's a very unique value proposition that we bring is we're going to bring you truth, we're going to bring you information, it's going to be based in fact, but you need to understand the context, you take the context out of it. I think that's dangerous. And I think we've seen over the course of history, it's important and especially in these critical times, there have been so many important moments where journalists in particular have had to speak up. They've had to shine a light on, on, on moments and issues and decisions and leaders who have handled things in an unfair way or unfair practices or uh unequal and, and, and I think that's what we do and that's the value of what we do. You touch on truth is truth objective. Do we live in a post truth society? That's a great question. So I think there are a lot of ways you can approach certain issues. I think there are some issues and some approaches that go beyond that. And so if I say the sky is blue and you say the sky is green, we can have a conversation about that because it's probably some shade of the of both. If I say the sky is blue and you say there's no skyy, there is no truth conversation happening here. And so that's why I think we have to in a very responsible way and, and I will, I will underscore the word responsible because what we do very much is a public service. I look at my job as a public service every day. It's our job to inform if we're just falsely equalizing things. If we're afraid to shine a light on the truth. If we're afraid to call out facts and call out um, uh, moments that are, that are unfair or, or unequal or dangerous. I think that does a disservice to, to us and, and our audience. And so I think we have to be comfortable calling those things out. This conversation is especially topical given to announcement this evening that he sounds like he did that on. We're going to, we're gonna circle back on that. But to your point commentary. Yeah, should be thought provoking. It should push the boundaries within certain limits. How do you ensure that it's not, I don't wanna use the word provocative but not a barrage of incendiary exchanges for outrage, for the sake of outrage. I think you're absolutely right. And I think that's why, you know, uh my, my approach with the teams and we just had AAA big conversation about this today is people come to us because they wanna understand it's easy to do a food fight if you want a food fight and pick this side and that side and have them go at it for 10 minutes. There are a lot of places where you can see that where I'm not, there are a lot of platforms where you can see that kind of uh uh discourse for us. Again, the value proposition is how do we help the audience understand better? How do we bring context of what's happening? And so I'm, I'm not interested in just kind of the empty calories of finding discourse for the sake of discourse. I do think we, again, we can't be afraid to break some eggs, but we have to do it in a way that's responsible and putting our audience at the center. You mention msnbc's responsibility to inform, to help the audience understand what's going on in the broader society for years, for decades. Really, that information has been packaged through a lens through a prism that is racially homogenous and heavily male skewed. So how are you broadening the perspectives, the analyses that are streaming into people's homes on a daily basis? So I think that's something that, that hopefully you see on our, it's something that's been a big priority for me in the 2.5 years that I've been in this job. And I think it's very important that the voices you see and hear and read because as we think about all platforms and, and where you experience our brand, it has to look like the country we live in. And so that, that means prioritizing, who are the people who are bringing you the information? We have one of the most diverse lineups of any television network across the board. How do we continue to talk to audiences that look like the world that we live in there? Are more African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Americans watching MS NBC than any other news network. And that doesn't happen by accident. It's because there is content there that's relatable to the, to them that is understandable to the masses. They see their perspectives being reflected. Part of that is making sure my teams look like the country, it's making sure my teams behind the scenes look like the country, the people you see on air look like the country and that they're a to facilitate conversations that aren't homo homogenous. You bring a really a really great point, which is that your audience at this point is very diverse. Obviously, we're seeing a number of other cable news networks that are looking to expand their demographics, maybe, let's say, move more centrist. Um How do you ensure that you are broadening that demographic and not essentially created in this echo chamber of thoughts of ideology? So one thing that I think has been rewarding for us is, as I said, most diverse audience and, and of any other news network and we're the only network that's growing, the only news network that's growing here over the year. So it happens to be good for business, it happens to be profitable, it happens to grow our audience. And so when you see those successes, we're not doing it because it feels good and it's a pride month or, or, or that sort of thing, we're doing it because it's the right thing to do and it's good for business. And so I think again, there is the, there is the public service part of what I do, there is the personal calling part of what I do and there's the business part, um, of what I do. And when those three things come together and when doing the right thing is actually good for business, I think that's what you're seeing and that's how we continue to ensure that this remains a priority. Absolutely. The Post Trump audience for cable news has dropped this year. That's not news to you linear TV is seeing a downward slide. What are your expansion plans for the MSNBC brand? Especially as we head into what I'm sure will be a gladiator style, a pugilistic high stakes 2024 election cycle. So I will not break my own heart in this room. How many of you have chosen not to have cable? Because I don't want to know the number. But I know it's a reality that a lot of people who are interested in information, they're interested in being informed, they're interested in knowing what's happening in the world. They may choose not to pay 200 bucks a month for cable. And so what I focused on is how do we make sure that the same level of engagement, the same quality journalism that our audiences have experienced on our linear channel on channel six oh three or wherever you live how do you get that experience in other places? And so we've really been focused on building up where our brand appears. Do we ensure the content is where you guys are consuming whether that's streaming? And we've got both original content and content from our linear network on streaming platforms. How do we grow our audience on youtube and tiktok and social and uh Twitter and Facebook and all of these other places. How do we ensure that no matter what device you're using and, and, and where you're getting content that there is um trusted content from our brand where you are. And so a big part of that. And it's, it's this weird thing where um cable audiences across the world or across the country are declining. We're growing in some of these digital platforms. We haven't hit the point where the, the growing audiences are surpassing the declining audiences. And I will say linear television is still a very, very, very profitable business. But when we think about what is the, what does the future look like? Where are things in five years? In 10 years? We've kind of got to play in both of those spaces. Um I, I remember my, my now 17 year old, he said this maybe it was last year. He said to me and he was very confident about it. He said, mom, I'm a cord cutter and I'm like, no, because I pay for cable in your I plugged it, you unplugged it like that. I'm still paying for it. But to him, he's like, I don't use cable, like I, I needed that plug for my P S five and I don't even use the cable pieces because in his brain, everything that I need to watch, I can get in other places. And that's where, that's where that generation is going. We very quickly corrected that because I'm still paying for it even. And, but that's where that's where that generation is going. And so it's imperative for us if we, if we want to stay alive, if we want to continue to be relevant. And I also think it's important for us to be in these places where there may be other brands or other people creating content um that aren't coming from reputable sources. It's important for us to be there as well because that's where audiences are going. And it's important for us to bring the right information. Absolutely. We obvious again, this is a room of very powerful women. We know, obviously, we obviously want to be clear eyed about the challenges for leaders today even more so for women leaders, even more so for black women leaders, et cetera, et cetera. But I also understand that the era that is in front of us is an opportunity for companies to do things differently, to certainly lead differently. What does that look like for you at MSNBC? What's the imprint you put in? On the network and it's many stakeholders from employees to viewers. So I think I would answer that in a couple of ways. I think ensuring that we continue to bring diverse voices to the conversation is imperative. There will not be a big night of coverage on our air where you don't see a representation of, of the country. So that's important to us. Um We have the benefit of having a lot of options because we have such a diverse team and that's a priority. I think the other big piece of that is how do I build a pipeline? How do I ensure that I'm sitting in this chair now, but there that there isn't a pipeline of people who come behind me. Um And how do, how do I ensure that um those folks are, are, are being grown and they're being mentored? We've got these amazing mentees in the room. How do I ensure that we're doing a version of that um within our, within our company? But I actually think within our industry, how do I have an imprint on the industry where there are other women in the women of color who see that this is a thing that is possible to do the same thing that my dad used to tell me if a person can do it, you can do it. But then how do I build that line of people behind me and going as far back as the, the entry level and, and, and hopefully one day doing some version of what I'm doing now, I mean, that conversation will only become all the more important as the US, becomes far more diversified and skew is far younger. Thank you, Rashida for joining us. I think it's time for all in with Chris Hayes. At this point. We know the good thing is you can watch it on peacock. There you go. Thank you. Oh, my God. Thank you, Rashida. Uh Please continue to enjoy your dinner. We'll be back at 8 45 with New York Governor Kay Hope and the conclusion of this evening's program. And thank you, Raita. It's such a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you.