Follow along with me with this hypothetical: Let’s say someone invests significant money to buy a company. The company’s value is overwhelmingly related to their brand and the trust customers have in that brand. However, the company has recently had a habit of hiring people who view their role as different from the original mission of that brand. Instead of sharing reliable information, they view their role as pushing their customers to align with their worldview. They want the company’s focus to be on advancing those missions. That approach has had the effect of significantly devaluing the brand that the investor purchased. The reach of that company is diminishing each day. An additional consequence is they are losing a lot of money. Let’s say over $70 million a year. So that original investor now has a company with a brand whose value is severely diminished and he’s losing hundreds of millions each year to subsidize their failing business model. The employees don’t seem to care because they are still getting paid and now feel entitled to the company supporting their preferred approach regardless of whether it hurts the brand or loses money. It takes him too long, but the investor publicly acknowledges that this is not sustainable and they need to change course. He insists they make an effort to appear less open in their bias and return the focus to sharing information. Instead of realizing that the investor may have a point and that it is also in their interest for the company to be successful, the entitled employees and the union that represents them decide to start publicly attacking and smearing the owner and implying bad motives. Their tantrum contributes to the company losing a ton of business. Can you imagine any industry where that would be considered acceptable? What other company wouldn’t be facing mass layoffs? What other owner/investor would tolerate this? If you want to understand why the news media is failing and increasingly risking irrelevancy, I can’t think of any better example than this one.
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