Dan Donohue has been named vice president of human resources for LIN TV. He will oversee all organizational planning, development and training as well as employee and labor relations for LIN TV’s corporate offices, as well as its 29 television stations in 17 markets nationwide. He has a B.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri and a MBA from Temple University.
PBN: With over 30 years of executive human resources experience in media companies, have you identified an issue in your field that is distinct to the industry?
DONOHUE: Unlike other companies, we do have Federal Communications Commission requirements for documentation of employment and recruiting. As well, while many people were enjoying Christmas and New Years Day as holidays, they were also tuning into our local channels. Local and national news departments operate 365 days a year. So media companies have to have people that are dedicated and motivated to work at times when most other people are not. Which also includes the ‘sweeps’ – four months out of the year when show ratings are measured by Neilson Media Research. During those months, our on-air talent is not permitted to take vacation. With that unusual set of circumstances, many media companies have to consolidate a year’s worth of vacation time for their employees into 8 months.
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PBN: Are national human resources policies at all adjusted for variations that might exist in local markets?
DONOHUE: Television and media companies have been formed over the years through a series of acquisitions. For the last 8 years, LIN TV has also been a public company. And in the last five years of my involvement with LIN TV, we have been striving to make policies more consistent. Local news and local programming is geared towards local markets, but we want our human resources policies to be consistent. Where LIN TV has had acquisitions, hopefully we can learn from the good policies of the business we acquired to improve our own procedures.
PBN: With a B.A. in journalism and a MBA in business, how have you seen the two different pursuits meld in the past 20 years?
DONOHUE: Media companies are a service industry—and this is where journalism and business meld: we are heavily reliant on people who collect and deliver our news and other programs. We still rely on the individual reporter, editor, producer, director, web master, designer to create the products we consume and the products that LIN TV delivers. So we need the best skill-sets and the most motivated employees, and we need to be able to compensate them. •
