Those are the words of Dean Nelson the Chairman and CEO of Channel One’s parent company, PRIMEDIA. What he is talking about is Channel One News.
He said this at the Credit Suisse First Boston 2005 Global Week Conference held in New York City on December 6. You can hear his comments in full context at this link until March 6, 2006. (Move the start point halfway down the scale for his comments about Channel One.)
Nelson says Channel One isn’t “a drain” on the company anymore. “Drain”? Funny, they never admitted that before. It has gotten so bad even the PRIMEDIA spin masters are struggling to say anything good about the company. A company that is categorized as “not a drain” doesn’t have much going for it. He does say that there is a lot of “upside” for Channel One which is much like saying there is a lot of “upside for Enron or the Houston Texans. Sometimes you can’t go lower.
Nelson also says that Channel One doesn’t need much “management time.” That is fairly insulting to those who remain at Channel One, but what he is trying to say is, “The company is nothing special to us anymore. If it survives, great. If it fails, so what.” Nelson said he would sell the company if it becomes a problem in a matter-of-fact manner and tone that should chill Channel One’s shrunken staff.
Nelson’s comments were not off-the-cuff answers to a question. These were his thought-out, planned comments. The question is now, “What constitutes a ‘problem’?”
