Lori Greene is currently the Executive Producer of BBCAmerica.com, where she oversees the production and all content for the site. Prior to this role, she held positions in every type of media, from travel journalist to TV producer, broadband, mobile, and more.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including Interactive Media Award Top Ten Website of the Year 2007 for The American Presidents at History.com; At Courttv.com she won an EPpy Award in 2004, a Promax World Gold Best Network Website and Best Movie Website in 2004, and a Silver Mark Award Best Affiliate Marketing in 2005; For Biography.com she won a Silver Mark Award Minority and Multicultural Audience in 2006, and several Interactive Media Awards for Outstanding Achievement.
Lori is on the NY board of Women in Cable Telecommunications. She is also a frequent panelist and featured expert speaker on integrating online divisions into corporations, digital content, how to find a job in a difficult economy and other digital issues. She’s also found time to visit every continent on the globe and summit Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Digital Mindshare caught up with Lori in the middle of yet another busy day.
DM: How did you break into the digital industry?
LG: I started working in media in my 20s as a travel journalist. I traveled all over the world writing and also did work in radio. From there, I went to the Travel Channel, and that started my TV career. I worked first on a daily show called Etc…Etc. After that, I went to Lifetime Television, working as a segment producer, which included booking guests and celebrities for a lifestyle show called Live from Queens.
Then I went to the Food Network as a producer for In Food Today. In that role, I oversaw all content for a live show five days a week, and then I became a field producer traveling North America doing taped food segments.
After five years at Food, I got an opportunity to enter the digital world. I got a job running the travel and food sections of an upscale Web site called Halo46.com. That lasted until the Dot.com bust. But it was that experience that really changed my career. I loved the amazing amount of creative ways you could tell a story in the digital world.
It was hard, though, to get a job with only a few months experience, so I went back to what I knew and loved — television. Court TV needed someone who could translate television production to digital people and digital production to television people. I understood both worlds and could facilitate effective communication. Eventually, I became the VP of Online Development and the go-to person for anything digital in the entire company, and have been working in the online industry ever since.
DM: What was it about your first foray into the digital or online industry that drew you so strongly?
LG: At the time I first started in the industry – around 2000 – it was like the Wild West. You could be so creative and do all kinds of things online that you couldn’t do in other mediums. It also incorporated all the content experience with media that I had throughout my career – text, audio, and video … sometimes all at the same time. You could experiment and push the envelope of creativity in ways you couldn’t do on TV or radio. That’s what I found so challenging and exhilarating about it, and still do!
DM: What are some of your biggest accomplishments in your digital career?
LG: Helping to save Courttv.com from extinction, changing the strategic direction of both History.com and Biography.com, and watching the traffic and engagement metrics soar, and building amazing teams while mentoring people who are very successful today. I really enjoy creating a unique mission for a site and helping it to reach its potential through content. For History.com it was being the end-all and be-all of everything history, and for Biography.com it was aggregating content about all types of people to keep users engaged.
DM: What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in this business?
LG: Making the right bets on the future … figuring out what is worthwhile, given small budgets and few resources. It’s a challenge to stay on the edge to evolve, but not to waste money on apps that may “fizzle” out.
DM: More and more women are entering the digital space. Many want to enter it as a career change. What advice can you give to women who want to work in the online or digital industry?
LG: Focus on what you are good at. If you are good at marketing, for example, you can certainly translate those skills for the digital space. Just get some work experience and get in the door. Whether you work for free, or a low-paying internship, it doesn’t matter – you need to prove that you understand the medium.
Joining organizations is also really important. For example, I’ve been on the board of Women in Cable Telecommunications for several years. When I was job-hunting at the end of last year, and heard there was an opening at BBC America, I literally emailed everyone on the board to see if there was a connection – and that’s how I got my job.
Networking is just huge. It is a challenging job market right now. You need to go to everything, be everywhere, and tell people you are looking. Make a list of people who could help you. That’s always been important, but it’s even more so now in this economy.
DM: How do you see the industry changing in the next 5-10 years?
LG: Like other mediums before it, digital is an integral part of our lives and I think advertisers know that and are going to keep being more supportive of digital.
Mobile is going to be explosive; it really hasn’t even reached the tip of the iceburg in the U.S. I also think the whole cable industry will figure out a way to have TV everywhere. If, for example, people can pay for cable, and also get it online, it would be huge. Comcast and Time Warner Cable are working on that right now.
DM: How do you deal with information overload?
LG: I think it’s important to remember things that have little or nothing to do with “digital” – things that keep you well rounded and grounded like family. I meditate every morning, and I try each day to find three different things to be grateful for. This keeps me on an even keel.
DM: What things did you find to be grateful for this morning?
LG: Today I found four things! I am grateful that I got to visit with my 96-year-old grandmother, for the smell of Riverside Park after the rain, that my son finished 7th grade at a challenging school with excellent grades…and that my husband is very close to getting a deal for his sixth book.