Star Culture Declining?
NBC announced last week that it’s dropping Dateline anchor Stone Phillips as a cost-cutting measure. Pundits quickly sized up the move as representing the decline of network television news. This may be true, but there is a broader trend at play: it’s the beginning of the end of star culture.
NBC has been willing to pay Phillips a fancy salary, because the network was convinced that Phillips’ star power attracted viewers at least as much as the investigative journalism Dateline provides. I know a former Dateline producer who frequently referred to Phillips as the star and had to make appointments with Phillips’ secretary to work with him on stories.
And for years, local TV stations have promoted anchors as faces you can trust. However, that’s changing. One mid-sized NBC affiliate now rarely promotes its main anchor. I know this, because the anchor is a friend of mine. But other stations are promoting anchors less and instead making news promos about viewers and their interests.
In The Culture of Collaboration book, I write about the Myth of the Single Cowboy and how many organizations embrace a star culture. You can read more about this in the book’s introduction. The point I make is that collaborative culture creates greater value than star culture. While star culture still pervades business, the media and our collective consciousness; we’re starting to see a chink in the armor.
