A top media business leader told a Duke audience Thursday that the industry is strong and promising for people with knowledge of new media communication skills.
"Social media changed the game," said David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery Communications at Schiciano auditorium to a group of about 60 people. "As you think about entering our space, the media space -- anything you can say about how we can engage in social media, every CEO wants to know because we're afraid of it."
Discovery Communications owns the popular Discovery Channel, as well as TLC and the HowStuffWorks website, among many other media properties. It bills itself as the top nonfiction media company, with channels in 173 countries in 35 languages. The company has announced plans to launch Oprah Winfrey Network in conjunction with Winfrey.
Zaslav said that when he arrived at Discovery four years ago one of his first priorities was to re-focus the company's flagship channel on programs about nature and adventure, doing away with shows about "bikers and tattoos."
He discussed the controversy surrounding the channel's reality show "John and Kate Plus Eight," which ended up chronicling the collapse of the couple's marriage. Zaslav said his company took precautions to try to shield the family's children from harm, such as having a psychologist present during filming and establishing a foundation to pay for the children's educations.
Zaslav said his attitude was, "If anybody tells us -- that this is not in the best interests of the kids, we'll pull the show and in fact we did."
Coming to know your self is a key to career success, Zaslav said.
"If you want to be successful, spend a lot of time figuring out what you're not good at and how to address that," he said. "I know for me, I was disorganized.
"My career almost self-destructed because I was too emotional," he said.
Zaslav was invited to speak by the student group Duke Venture Forward for entrepreneurship. His son Jordon is a sophomore at Duke.
"It was different than the typical finance and consulting that we see," said senior Jamie Wilkie, a member of Venture Forward. "Duke students haven't had as much exposure to the creative side of things."
"For me the coolest part was it was not just a talk about how to be successful -- he talked about all the mistakes he made," said Andrea Coravos, a senior and vice president of Venture Forward. "It was pretty tailored to our age."