Great careers take courage, not ego. Sometimes when you are trying to successfully navigate during difficult times, the best and maybe the only next step might be moving laterally, maybe even moving down market. It may seem like a step back or a career 'time out' but it can have significant benefits.

1.     There are times when you just need clean air because of a toxic culture or poor management at a station level. Moving out from under what feels oppressive and holding you back can be like being born again.

2. Another lane is moving faster than the one you are in. It's easy to get stuck behind or boxed in when you are perpetually on-deck.

Not all stations are created equal. You may find you're much better off at the market leader in a smaller operation with a bigger client or audience base than a perpetual No. 4 out of 4.

How about this illustration of the power in alternative channels …. Same company. Same programming. Exact same moment in time. Live online viewers in a No 1 in DMA 25 can be 10x the live viewers of No 4 in DMA 10! The larger market is exactly 2x the size in terms of population. The top 10 market had ten times LESS online viewers than a market half the size. This is today's broadcast TV news reality.

There are three groups of people that need to be genuinely concerned with the photo below.

First, if you are an advertiser, especially producing content for the online streaming audience and you've paid DMA ranked rates, you might want to renegotiate that deal.

Secondly, and should be the most apparent, the general management of the station has got a big problem to deal with given trends and future revenue opportunities.  Revenue drives everything. Payroll (salaries and headcount), equipment (new technology and replacement), and benefits (vacation, PTO, medical, allowances, expense accounts) are a few. 

Finally, the on-air talent is losing audience and audience translates into brand and brand equity. As the leader of a talent management organization, I watch this very closely on behalf of clients. Your ability to build an online brand will be taking a serious hit.

The march up market in the business is legendary and iconic for the broadcast journalist.

Starting from a dank and dark studio at some university, the young and hopeful have traditionally marched to the beat of the top 10 or 20 drum. They start in places like Biloxi-Gulfport or Wheeling-Steubenville or Waco TX and have Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago or even New York in their sights. It was a simple and effective strategy. Follow the people, the population. Population shifts literally take decades and change much slower than the change in your career. But then internet access happened and not just the internet, but broadband, a superhighway pipeline of digital content.

People are unplugging and cutting the cord at a record pace. The traditional measure of the number of TV in market is still a strong indicator of performance but change is on the horizon and channels (pun intended) are shifting. The strength and reach of a television signal will no longer be an indication of eyeballs on YOU!

The future will likely bring some interesting changes to the multimedia professional. A multi-channel multi-screen brand won’t be optional, it will be essential. Your content and image will need to be adaptable and responsive not only to technology, but responsive to audience channel shift. TalentBlvd focuses a tremendous amount of energy on client branding. It's key to becoming timeless and not timed out.

Let's get back to the image above. Ok, an anchor in a top 10 market your compensation TODAY will be significantly higher than the top 25 market but clearly you need to keep an eye on another number as an indication of audience size. Audience size in a smaller market can be significantly larger than that of a lowly ranked station in a much bigger market. Your social media rankings can be significantly higher even if you are in a smaller market. You can score influencer gigs based on market size and engagement regardless of where you are physically!

The big takeaway here is that geography, the geo fences of zip codes, is likely to play a smaller and smaller role in determining your audience and the equity of your brand. Your march up market just got a little bit more complicated and the importance of building a digital brand much more critical to your future success.

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