TV Sweeps Tips for Higher News Channel Viewership

TV Sweeps Tips for Higher News Channel ViewershipTV Sweeps Tips for Higher News Channel ViewershipTV sweeps periods bring a combination of excitement and anxiety to most people who work in television. Its the time that Nielsen ratings are taken at stations and the networks. Those measurements determine what is broadcast and can change TV careers forever. TV Sweeps Periods In most local DMA areas, Nielsen ratings are taken in February, May, July, and November. Each of these rating periods (also called sweeps) are conducted over four weeks. Depending on the size of the DMA, the ratings are recorded electronically or by paper diary. Nielsen selects a small number of families whose TV viewing patterns will be used to reflect those of the local area or of the entire nation. Nielsen will release overnights, which are the previous days ratings results based on the numbers it gets electronically. Thats why you can get a snapshot of the ratings of network shows like American Idol the day after it is broadcast. The overnight ratings dont take into account the viewers who fill out diaries of what they watched and mail them to Nielsen. Those numbers usually take about a month to tabulate and release. The reason TV sweeps periods create tension in the TV industry is that they are a report card of the programs viewers like best and which ones they ignore. From a newsroom at a small affiliate station all the way up to the top jobs at the networks, the ratings can lead to firings, promotions or TV show cancellations. Boost Your Content During TV Sweeps You can mark your calendar for the four rating months and know those will be the times youll see the best programming. TV executives are all competing to grab your attention. During prime-time, youll see special guests, cliffhanger episodes and other devices used to get more people to watch a show. Local TV stations follow the same pattern with their newscasts, producing investigative reports and special features that ar e broadcast specifically during a TV sweeps period to boost their audience. A common way to boost content is through a tie-in to another program. If a character in a popular prime-time show is the victim of date rape, you can produce a local news report on date rape to air in that nights newscast. This technique can also be found on the network morning shows, which might preview the date rape episode, interview a date rape victim and talk to a date rape expert all as a way of capitalizing on the storyline in the prime time show. Sharpen Your aufsteigen During TV Sweeps All your efforts to produce better content during TV sweeps periods will be wasted if theyre not promoted correctly. Your advertising is a critical part of building your audience. Of the six types of media advertising, topical promotion is the most important during TV sweeps. Your message needs to be both compelling and simple Watch us tonight. Using the date rape example, it is critical that during the prime-ti me program featuring that topic there appears a topical promotion for that nights newscast touting the local date rape story. You want to drive the prime time audience straight to the newscast. Thats a good method to get viewers to sample a newscast that isnt number one in the DMA. Youre telling people who may otherwise switch to the market-leading station they usually watch to give your station a try because of this important story. Other Ways to Improve Your Ratings During TV Sweeps TV executives are masters at manipulating audiences during TV sweeps. They have tricks beyond focusing on content or promotion. Expect to see some stations and occasionally the networks unveil lavish watch and win sweepstakes or another type of media contest. Prizes are awarded if a viewer stays glued to the TV and calls in with a secret phrase at the appointed time. The TV executives are counting on some of these people to also be Nielsen families, who will have their viewing habits recorded. A st ation or network wouldnt be able to produce a commercial saying, If you are a Nielsen family during this TV sweeps period, remember that youre watching Channel 4. Nielsen doesnt allow such blatant attempts to skew their results. Some stations may skirt the line by putting out ads that say, If anyone asks, tell them youre watching Channel 4. That may seem like a lot of effort directed at just a handful of families in the DMA, but remember that if even just a few of them change what they report to Nielsen, it can have a huge impact on the ratings. All of this may seem silly, especially to people who work in industries outside media, but when TV careers are on the line based on the viewing habits of a handful of people, every effort has to be made to drive up the numbers. A TV sales department then uses the higher ratings to boost their ad rates to bring in more money by selling TV advertising.

The small behaviors that create excellence at work

The small behaviors that create excellence at workThe small behaviors that create excellence at workTom Peters is a leading business mind and the bestselling author of sixteen books, including In Search of Excellence (with Robert H. Waterman, Jr.), which is often cited among the best business books ever written. He recently joined Caroline Webb, CEO of Sevenshift and author of How to Have a Good Day, to discuss the timeless words and gestures that create excellence - and give you a serious edge - while on the job.Caroline So what was it that made you write The Excellence Dividend now, as opposed to ten years ago?Tom The story that I always like to tell is the time that I was flying from Albany, New York, to Baltimore-Washington International on Southwest Airlines. The pilot was running toward the gate from a prior tuch that had arrived late. There were six people in wheelchairs at the gate, and he turns to the woman in the front wheelchair and says, Would you mind if I rolled you d own the jetway?That, Caroline, is unmitigated, pure excellence to me - it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The former president of Southwest, Colleen Barrett, has said, We hire people based on listening, caring, smiling, saying thank you, and being warm.Years ago, I was talking to a Starbucks regional manager, and I had just come back from Dammam in Saudi Arabia. I said to this woman, What in the hell is going on? The people in Starbucks in Dammam smile just as much as the people on Charles Street in Boston. And she said, We hire people that smile. The ones that smile the fruchtwein, we promote.Those differentiators are going to bring you success for quite a while. There may be a day when 97th generation artificial intelligence can push the wheelchair down the jetway, but I think weve got a little time.Caroline A long time ago, you coined the phrase, People first - the idea that the job of a leader is to create a culture where people come first. And you are maintain ing that even more fiercely as we think about what you call the tech tsunami. What turned you on to that so long ago?The job of a leader is to create a culture where people come first.Tom When we started working on our 1982 book, In Search of Excellence, my co-author Bob Waterman and I were in San Francisco. We were looking for good companies, and there was an interesting upstart 30 miles down the road called Hewlett-Packard. Bob said, Why dont you binnensee if you can set up an appointment with John Young, who was the president. So I go to a phone book, look up the number, and call Hewlett-Packard. I say, Can I speak to John Young? About 15 seconds later, a gruff voice comes on This is John Young, who is this?It was a holy sh-t moment. You could have a large institution and not run it as a family business.Caroline Yeah, but everybody treated each other like humans.Tom And that meeting was really the life changer, when he told us about the HP way - managing by wandering around, or MBWA.All it means is hanging out with the people who do the work. Get in touch with them, learn whats going on. And its fun If you do not take deep joy in hanging out with the distribution center crew at 100 am, then go home, write a letter, and resign as a leader.I write about a Nordstrom woman a little bit - she said that when she was a store manager and everything would go to hell in a handbasket, she would get up and wander the store for 20 minutes.Caroline Yeah, it could be a deep one-on-one conversation, or a huge, extroverted chat, but that sense of reconnecting to what your organization is about reminds you of the whole point of your work.Technology is hugely enabling, but its also going to dramatically change the future of work. What advice do you give a manager who is trying to keep his or her workforce excited, motivated, and not terrified that they will lose their jobs?Tom I think every leader has a moral responsibility to make their people better prepared when they wal k away, whether they work for that leader for two months or ten years.Caroline I agree. If we think about human strengths as opposed to strengths of robots, its about empathy. Its creativity, innovation, and wisdom. We are going to need managers who know enough about the human mind to elicit those human strengths from the people around them. Its an imperative that has long existed - you wrote about this in 1982.Tom Well, the difference is that it used to be a lovely vorkaufsrecht for getting ahead. Now its a survival requisite.Caroline Leaders need to understand what people truly find rewarding and motivating, which is a sense of competence, autonomy, purpose, being treated fairly, being included, and being respected. Its not that hard - you just need to work out, Okay, well what can I do on a tiny basis from day to day, from minute to minute, that makes people feel rewarded in that profound, intrinsic way?You use the phrase fierce listening. Why is listening so important?Tom Fier ce listening comes from Susan Scott. I also found a wonderful book from the former U.S. Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, where he writes, The best way to persuade someone is with your ears. And it makes perfect sense. All this academic literature says, The reason that 9 out of 10 sales calls fail is because the salesperson talks instead of listens.I was in the UK, and I picked up Richard Bransons management book. The entire first section, 150 pages, is called Listening. One word. And one of the things I remember him saying is, We have eight traits associated with effective leadership at Virgin, and seven of those eight traits are based on listening.I was having an interview with somebody in Amsterdam. The interviewer did two things she nodded her head all the time, and she took notes. And I said to somebody, If shed gone on for another ten minutes, I would have admitted to mass murders that I havent even committed Because shes looking me in the eye and taking notes, and shes saying, E verything you say is of critical importance to me.Caroline On the science side, it is inherently, deeply rewarding to be listened to. It sparks all sorts of feelings of pleasure and self-respect that we know make an enormous difference to peoples ability to think clearly. It lowers peoples stress levels, and we think better when were not stressed.Tom You can say these things that sound soft, but in the age of advanced neuroscience, theres science behind it. There isnt anything soft about it in terms of its impact.Caroline Absolutely. You make someone smile by really paying attention and listening to them. And asking real questions, not just pausing to reload your answers.Tom Well, a guy named Dave Wheeler said, The four most important words in an organization are, What do you think? Caroline Oh, I love that. And with that in mind, youre more likely to reach for it in the heat of the moment, when you realize that youve been taking 90% of the airtime. You can catch yourself and say, I realize that Ive been talking a lot. What do you think?Why is thank you so important and underused?Tom Thank you for small things is a hundred times more powerful than thank you for big things. In my last book, my epigraph was from the American statesman Henry Clay. Its something like, Courtesies of the small sort are the ones we take to the grave.I had a friend one time who, because of his background, had problems saying thank you. He was in a fundraising event, and I said, Look, just do this for me Send out thank you notes. You will get so many wonderful responses, you will just have to do it more often in the future.Caroline Youve become so adept at labeling the small, everyday behaviors that we can all embrace, which has shaped my work enormously. The great things that a company might achieve are built on these small, everyday things.Tom Absolutely. And I love Rich Karlgaards book, The Soft Edge. Hes right in the heart of Silicon Valley, and one of the things he says is, When i t really pays off is at a time of adversity.Caroline Right, its like the fact that the pilot gets paid for the ten seconds when things are about to go wrong, not for anything else.So what advice would you give a leader whos going through a crisis?Tom The cheap answer is the MBWA thing. Go hang out. A lot of things will seem a lot less awful when youre doing that, assuming youve put the groundwork in place.Caroline How have you handled crises in your life?Tom Im not sure that Im a good model - I go berserk and overcompensate. Some of the ways that I react to a crisis would drive an organization totally crazy. So Im going to throw it back to you - lets say youre the CEO of United Airlines, and things have been going well. You wake up in the morning, and an employee of yours put a dog in the overhead bin and killed it. Its the seventh time you guys have made a mistake like that. What would you do?Caroline I think that we respond well to signs of authenticity and vulnerability. And on e thing that marks great leaders in a crisis is their ability to convey a sense of clarity on the process thats going to unfold - how theyre going to find out what went wrong, how theyre going to fix it.And also being comfortable acknowledging how terrible it makes you feel - naming the emotion and acknowledging your own skin in the game.Tom One thing I would add is dont listen to the lawyers. I dont mean that in some funny lawyer joke way - theyre going to tell you to couch your words, to make sure youre not in trouble during the lawsuit two years from now. No - own up to it.Caroline Actually you talk in the book about the importance of saying, Im sorry, and recognizing that you have blind spots. In a crisis that becomes really, really crucial, because nobody has the whole picture, and unless you acknowledge what you dont know and whats gone wrong, its very hard to find the solution.Tom You know Toro, the lawn mower company, started apologizing for accidents. Their average sett lement rate - this may be wrong, but its directionally correct - went from something like $300,000 to $15,000. And they hadnt even been in court Its shamelessly true how well it works.This article was originally published on Heleo.com.

How to tell your wife that you want to get a divorce

How to tell your wife that you want to get a divorceHow to tell your wife that you want to get a divorceThe messiness ofdivorcehas been well documented. Theattorneys, thecustody battles, dividing everything up. But when you are sure - absolutely sure - you want to go through with one, how do you tell your spouse you want a divorce? In movies, its often blurted out in the midst of a heatedargument, with one mann an ihrer seite or the other dramatically shouting, I want a divorce But in life, things tend to go a bit differently.And, if you wantthe ensuing legal battleto be civil, its in ones best interest to take pause and really determine how to tell the person they vowed to spend the rest of their life with that its over. So how does one deliver this particularly life-altering bit of news?Theres no one way to do it. But there are some guidelines to keep in mind.Timing is everythingTo say that telling your lebenspartner you want a divorce is delicate is an understatement. It is an e normous decision, one that, when broached, will alter both of your lives forever. As such, you want to make sure that you choose to have the conversation at a time when your partner is emotionally capable of receiving the news. In other words, dont tell them you want a divorce when theyrestressedor emotional. You know your partner better than anyone, so dont make the disastrous mistake of bringing up divorce in the middle of an important life event, advises relationship coachAlice Wood. Be patient and remember that the announcement can wait until a moment when its impact will be the least damaging. Is this obvious? Yes. But its essential.Find the right locationIdeally, you want to break the news in a private, quiet space. Dont have theconversationin a crowded restaurant or even at home when the kids are in the next room. Benjamin Valencia II, a partner and certified family law specialist at Meyer, Olson, Lowy, and Meyerssuggests that, if thecouple is in therapy, the therapists offic e might be a good location. In this way, both parties can feel tresor and free to ask questions and/or gain an understanding of what the other cocktailparty is thinking without erupting into an argument, he says. Further, the therapist can help create healthy boundaries moving forward which can prove invaluable when the going gets tough.Avoid detailsWhen the time is right to bring up the topic of divorce, Kelly A. Frawley and Emily S. Pollock, partners at the law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres and specialists in matrimonial and family law, suggest not getting into details or specifics of how the divorce will work,custody arrangementsor anything other specifics, as they will only overwhelm your partner further. If he or she is just hearing about the possibility of divorce for the first time, they say, dont go in details about how you are going to divide the brokerage account, who should have the kids for Christmas this year, or how you are already looking for a new apartment. The key is to give the person time to digest the concept, show emotion, and ask questions.Choose your wordsTelling your partner you want a divorce is undoubtedly difficult. Theres no need to make it worse by blaming your spouse for their shortcomings or using phrases like, You should have, You dont, or You didnt. You also need to be honest about what youre feeling and why you believe this decision is the right one. So, whentalking about divorce,you have to be specific in your language - this isnt the time to be vague. If your words are ambiguous, you may leave your spouse/partner with a glimmer of hope that the marriage can be saved, when that is not your intention, says Craig S. Pedersen, a partner at Meyer, Olson, Lowy and Meyers. That can only create further problems down the line.Acknowledge your mutual unhappinessEven if a divorce is more one-sided, chances are that neither party in the marriage is particularly thrilled about the way things have been going. With this in mind, its wise t o open the conversation by laying the cards on the tabled. I usually will suggest that they start the conversation with a statement such as As you know, I have not been happy in the marriage for a long time. I also think you have not been happy either, says New York divorce lawyerJacqueline Newman, author of theSoon to be Exseries of books. If the other person can acknowledge that he or she is also unhappy, it makes it an easier conversation to have as it is not so one-sided.Consider a team approachRather than focusing on the fact that you and your partner are separating, its essential to shift the perspective a bit and talk about how you both will work together to make this whole process as easy as possible. Divorce does not have to be a battle, reminds Valencia. Especially if you have children, your common goal should be what is in their best interests. Approaching a divorce by listing the common goals will help both parties realize they are in this together and cooperating behoov es both of them.Thisarticlewas originally published on Fatherly.