It’s the key pivot you must make immediately to rescue your struggling local newscasts from irrelevance and restore substantial revenue growth;
It’s the key reason your digital platforms are underperforming by more than 50%;
And it’s the key cause of a lost connection between your anchors and their viewers.
My name is Ray Brune (bru’ – nee) – my 30+ years of massive success with news formats is clear and quantifiable on the header above. Here’s the hard truth no one on your team will tell you – because they don’t understand it themselves: Your left brain newscasts are obsolete! They need a fresh, bleeding-edge transformation. It’s time to make the “Personality Pivot:”
Local TV stations once relied on syndication for all their right-brain, personality-driven programming —talk shows, sitcoms, court shows, and dramas. But with the high costs and viewers migrating to other platforms, these shows have nearly vanished from local lineups. Now, stations are forced to produce more of their own content, but it’s just more of the same: left-brain newscasts that struggle to connect with audiences. Invest the next ten minutes into why you must “go right brain.” It’s the best investment you’ll ever make in your company:
I call it “going right brain.” My playbook is all about turning news readers into dynamic, screen-commanding personalities. Step One is (metaphorically) unplugging the damned teleprompter. It’s killing the connection between your talent and their viewers. With 15,000 hours in a live TV control room, I’ve mastered the psychology needed to inspire talent to take risks and confidently step out of their comfort zones. And I’m paid handsomely for successfully doing it over and over again:
“Producing” producers is an art all its own. So few people want to be behind the scenes anymore. Today’s producers have become glorified data processors, who, if we’re lucky, might have some common sense news judgment to boot. That’s why I go out of my way to transform a producer’s image of themselves drastically – into a showrunner. The results are spectacular:
I started a show called “The KTLA Morning News” in 1991 – a little morning news show in Los Angeles. The format was a hit – stations around the world tried to copy it – and over the last 35 years, that format has become a monster franchise. Because of the thousands of variables, every show becomes uniquely its own. It’s my job to see that uniqueness emerge unencumbered:
This is the one area of hiring talent that trips up so many news directors and TV executives. NBC hired Megyn Kelly for a reported $69 million. Problem is, none of the network’s highly-paid consultants, news managers and/or network executives were able to identify the one thing Megyn was missing: Warmth. Viewers could identify the lack of warmth in Megyn almost immediately. And that’s what fascinates me: I literally watch news directors constantly hiring news anchors and show hosts who have zero warmth – because they can’t identify what it is – much less quantify it in a data Excel sheet. Here’s a quiz to see if you can identify who is warm – and who is not:
I’ve created a two-hour “Mastermind” video course explicitly showing all the little things, the minutia involved in creating a genuinely authentic, jump-off-the-screen, right brain, personality-driven newscast. It’s a valuable tool for me when I am working with a group of news people to create a brand new franchise. It can only be seen by clients of mine, but here’s a short teaser of some key concepts:
My Right-Brain News Reel:
My Right Brain Programming Reel:
A Record That’s Clear & Quantifiable:
For the first time in years, I am a free agent. While I’ve been working with talent and producers on a freelance basis for many years, I am now free to work with TV stations, networks, and digital platforms again. I have begun to selectively accept some new clients.
My talent and producer clients work with me via Zoom. For stations and networks, I prefer to work on-site for 3-weeks with your people, and then follow up with talent and producers via Zoom in following weeks. I would consider a contract situation for start-ups, revamps and other opportunities.
BREAKING NEWS: I am so honored to share with you that my book, Personality Driven, has been named one of the 7 Best News Industry Books Of All Time by Bookauthority.com. I want to personally thank all the Thought Leaders on the site who voted this book to be worthy of consideration. There is 35+ years of discovery in that book. My success started at the University of KTLA where I got a PhD in Morning television during 6 years and countless hours in the control room producing live TV. I also want to thank the remaining few right-brain producers who are working tirelessly to produce personality-driven programming both on-air and on-line amid the lifeless constructs of soulless automation. So few television executives still recognize that people still watch people.
I am eternally grateful to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for award the KTLA Morning News its own star! July 8, 2021 was the 30th anniversary of the show’s premiere and I am so proud of all that we have accomplished. Thank you to all the original staff members who created a format that would be copied around the world – and pushed the KTLA Morning News to the highest-rated local morning show in the history of TV by our 14th sweeps period.
