C. J. Kettler, Channel One’s current CEO
From Jim Metrock:
There was no press release announcing her hiring.
All previous CEOs benefited from a substantial public relations effort when hired. Ms. Kettler got nothing. Strange.
It might have been Ms. Kettler who insisted on no publicity. I could understand that.
Odd that Obligation, Inc. was the entity that told the world that previous CEO Kent Haehl was gone.
The five previous CEOs that I have seen come and go are David Tanzer, Kevin McAliley, Jim Ritts, Judy Harris, and Kent Haehl. This is not a distinguished line of executives. All of them thought – foolishly – that commercially exploiting schoolchildren was a rock solid business model. They were wrong and they all paid for it, as they should. Starting with McAliley, each CEO made Channel One a smaller company during their term. (You’re suppose to grow the company.) Mr. Haehl oversaw the most dramatic loss of schools in Channel One’s tortured history. (Boy, I sure am sorry to see Kent leave.)
Ms. Kettler boasts of major positions in the business world. She held senior positions at Oxygen, MTV and several other firms, and yet in her mid-50s she finds herself as the top banana at… Channel One News!? Yipes. It looks like somebody made some pretty terrible career decisions along the way.
Ms. Kettler is not an educator or journalist. She’s a “marketing genius” like all the other Channel One CEOs. Yet, her background doesn’t tell me she will necessarily be a gung-ho kiddie marketer like her predecessors. There is a ray of hope with her.
Channel One News is a pariah in the world of education. It would take a special person as Channel One CEO to sue for peace with American parents and American educators. Is C. J. Kettler that type of special person?
We’ll see.
