ESPN’s New Media Slamdown

ESPN finally issued their Guidelines for Social Networking for, “All ESPN Talent, anchors, play by play, hosts, analysts, commentators, reporters and writers who participate in any form of personal social networking that contain sports related content.” Frankly, I’m agog at what they came up with.

You see, this is the sort of stuff that insecure business executives (often a redundant phrase) come up with time and time again. Here’s a link to a site with the text. What is it actually saying?

First, if you work for ESPN, people know who you are, and you talk about sports on a blog, Twitter, or other websites… well, don’t. If you work for ESPN, non-ESPN websites and blogs that contain sports observations/reporting/commentary are a no-no.

If you do try to go online, you have to have permission from a superior. If you get that, you are only allowed to say what ESPN will permit you to say (oh yeah, and you can in no way criticize ESPN, its talent, or–amazingly enough–these guidelines). You are, at all times, even during your off-hours, to assume you are representing ESPN. I.e., your ass is theirs.

ESPN will be watching everything its talent posts to make sure it toes the party line. It concludes with the always fun: “Any violation of these guidelines could result in a range of consequences, including but not limited to suspension or dismissal.” [emphasis mine]

Basically what ESPN management is saying is that they don’t understand how to use social networking, and they are going to wield a club over any employee who is smarter than they are (i.e., those that have web sites, and blogs, and tweet, and so forth).

What don’t they get? Well…all of it. Social networking in this context isn’t solely about the promotion of the sanctified entity known in the boardroom as the Entertainment and Sports Programming Networks. It’s about the behind-the-scenes stuff. It’s about letting the personalities be personalities and not just company shills.

What ESPN is afraid of is that one of their talented core of talent will hit on the magic formula that is the beginning of the end of ESPN. Well, guess what? ESPN has managed to do that all by themselves by isolating their talent from saying real stuff to the real public.

Some will cry “First Amendment”, but that really doesn’t much apply to workplaces. Businesses have a fairly broad ability to gag their employees…but only to a point.

Where ESPN is making their FUBAR is in PR…the very thing they are trying to control. They don’t understand that public opinion isn’t formed by those in the corner offices but by those who are tweeting and blogging and doing all those other things that ESPN doesn’t want its talent doing.

In contrast, many of the athletes that ESPN covers are becoming masters of social networking promotion. The PEOPLE are the product; not just the athletes, but the on-air talent. Without good people, the product withers. It’s true in all business.

So, what should ESPN have guidelined? Let’s try something like this (this is not to be construed in any way as something ESPN or anyone affiliated with ESPN would say, it’s just me throwing out a possibility):

ESPN expects all of its talent to comport themselves in a professional manner as per their employment agreement.

ESPN encourages its talent to interact on a personal level with fans, athletes, and others interested in the product ESPN promotes in whatever means are available and popular so long as they are legal and doesn’t compromise the standards of journalism that are expected.

ESPN acknowledges that their employees aren’t “on-air” all the time. It is our desire that these employees understand that with increasing celebrity comes an increased responsibility to the company image as well.

Private, in-company, communications are to be treated as private and in-company. The company will keep these to a minimum, but wherever and whenever they occur it is expected that the employee will maintain the information in-house.

Participation in social networking and other internet communication, except in emergencies, is proscribed while an employee is busy with their job unless one of their job functions is said networking.

Should ESPN consider an employee’s actions on the Internet to be contrary to the employee’s duty to the company, the company may discipline the employee in a manner no greater than proportional to the offense, up to and including dismissal. (Basically: if you publicly bad-mouth the company, or cause the company significant expense as a result of your networking, then there will be consequences.)

And that’s sort of what I’d have drawn up. Keep in mind that that’s just off the top of my head, but I think the flavor is there. You are expected to be a good employee, but you are also allowed to be a human being. In truth, this isn’t too different from what ESPN put out, but they said it badly and very self-servingly.

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens. Will ESPN personalities who have been so available to the netizens now suddenly disappear? Will some of their personal-interest sites (which, astonishingly, typically are centered on sports) go away? Or will there be a shift in the talent matrix at ESPN? Is that what the company really wants and social networking is just a smoke screen?

The reaction to this from the people directly affected by it will be something to watch for. Obviously the guidelines prevent them from objecting…their only recourse then, if they don’t like the guidelines, will be to reconsider their employment options. Perhaps they will be allowed to maintain their sites, projects, and interactions if they cease being employees and become contractors. Cheaper for ESPN (less overhead for contractors).

Time will tell how this shakes out.