Those are the words from Tribune’s Sam Zell to the Orlando Sentinel staff as he tries to fire up the Tribune troops around the country during his tour of the companies beleaguered holdings.
The audacity!
Does Zell want to innovate? Does he want to forget the past? Does he want take risks?
It sure sounds like it. Zell doesn’t like losing, and that’s the mindset journalists need. There has been a malaise over the industry for years as employees have set into a losing mindset.
Everyone believes the demise of newspapers is inevitable. So why try? Why innovate?
If that’s our attitude, I got news for everyone: we will lose. We will fail miserably.
We will fail ourselves, our jobs, our coworkers — our democracy. Me? I’d rather win.
I’d rather give it everything I have. I’d rather innovate. I’d rather make journalism that matters.
We have to get rid of this good-enough-because-second-place-is-acceptable mindset. Good enough is for people who will never taste greatness. Second place is for losers.
It’s time to be winners. It’s time to get out of this coma. It’s time to say why not?
Why not be the best? Why can’t we win?
“I don’t care what happened in the past,” Zell said. “The bottom line is meritocracy.”
Meritocracy? That is bold for an industry built on union values of rewarding time served, not on talent or innovation.
But it’s time for bold moves, because that’s the only way to win.
“My head is focused on the future,” Zell said. “It does not turn 180 degrees.”
Forget the past. It’s time to start a revolution.
