Karen: This is the PKF Texas Entrepreneur’s Playbook. I’m Karen Love, Director of Practice Growth. The topic of today’s Playbook is Women in Business. My guest again today is Lisa Shumate. She’s the Executive Director and the General Manager of Houston Public Media. Welcome back to the Playbook, Lisa.
Lisa: Thank you.
Karen: What I’d like for us to talk about today is about women in media in your industry. Tell us about the trends that you’re seeing in that because I hear there’s really a lot going on.
Lisa: Well, there is. Women as a demo, 25-54, was really the major demo for all mass media. Now they’re looking a little bit younger, but still the woman decision-maker in a household, absolutely ruling the world. What’s happened over the last decade is women behind the scenes. The ones who are creating the programming that you’re seeing on television. The women who are running the station groups, both for the NBC and ABC-owned station group are women.
Karen: Wow.
Lisa: The studio executives. Catherine Bigelow, the director who won an Academy Award last year for Hurt Locker. So women behind the scenes in the media have just been on a fast track and accelerating. The new frontier, of course, is social media because women are big consumers of social media. They’re busy. They’re on the go. They have their phones in their hand, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, you name it. Women are also very visible and leading the way in that area as well.
Karen: Fantastic. Well that’s really interesting information. I’d like to talk to you some more about women in social media. I understanding they’re ruling the day there as well.
Lisa: Absolutely.
Karen: Well, please join us again. Thank you. This has been a Thought Leader Production brought to you by PKF Texas, the Entrepreneur’s Playbook. Tune in next week for another chapter.