Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1959)

THE MEDIA IAL 41 1 AND GET LOU HAUSMAN An introduction to the Television Information Office chief A couple of weeks ago, on one of the less noisy fringes of the banquet-night cocktail party at the CBS Radio affiliates' convention, a reporter approached Lou Hausman and offered congratulations. "For what?" Mr. Hausman wanted to know. By that time everybody was taking it for granted that Mr. Housman shortly would be chosen head of the new Television Information Office — everybody, that is, except possibly Mr. Hausman (and perhaps a few candidates who still clung to the hope that they might be the ones the lightning would strike). The reporter made bold to say so. Mr. Hausman had only one comment: "I am not auditioning for the job, and it has not been offered to me." Well, then, he was asked, what did he think of the TIO program laid down a few weeks earlier by TIO's founding committee — the program the new director would be guided by? The question was not entirely a fishing expedition; it had been widely reported that TIO committeemen had invited him in and discussed the program with him. "I have not read it," Mr. Hausman replied. It cannot be said that Mr. Hausman handled the truth loosely in fielding reporters' questions even though he was named TIO director only 24 hours after they were asked. No one denies that he never solicited the TIO job. Unquestionably it had not been formally offered to him at the time he spoke. And in his answer about his familiarity with the TIO program, what seemed a slight emphasis on the word "read" may have saved him later embarrassment. A Light Tip • There is no question, among those who have had dealings with him in his 19 years with CBS, that Lou Hausman ordinarily is not what might be called "out-going" with newsmen. Paradoxically, perhaps, there are a great many who feel that in his new job this is no small asset. They reason that TIO's success will depend to a great extent on the number of times its named does not appear in public. When you set out to conduct a PR campaign, according to this line of thought, you do not keep reminding people that you are doing so. Mr. Hausman undoubtedly subscribes to this view. But he also feels — as does the TIO committee which unanimously chose him — that TIO's job is much more than a mere publicity 54 undertaking. It is an educational job that works both ways, both to and from the public: in the committee's words, to create "an enduring two-way informational bridge between the industry and those from whom it seeks more understanding." That last means the public. It is not a selling job in the sense of getting advertisers to buy television time. Mr. Hausman reportedly told the TIO committeemen that, while he is not without experience in making presentations, they should look elsewhere if they wanted a salesman; that his conception of TIO's job, and the best way to get it done, centered around the collection and dissemination of the fullest possible information about television, what it offers to viewers and what it is trying to accomplish. The 52-year-old Mr. Hausman is still on the job as vice president of CBS Radio. He has been TIO director-designate for only 10 days, (Broadcasting, Sept. 28). Consequently, while he knows gen erally the directions in which he intends to move, he hasn't had time to polish the details. Chances are he will still be polishing when he moves into the new post on Oct. 12 and for a while thereafter; for his mind, though quick, is also meticulous. Four or Five, Tops • TIO starts off with a minimum budget of close to $400,000 and is expected to get this up to at least $700,000 long before Mr. Hausman's three-year contract comes up for renewal. But at the outset he expects to operate the office with a nucleus staff of no more than four or five executives, plus secretarial assistants. He is apt to depend heavily on independent experts for special projects. His record demonstrates that professionally he travels first class: he would rather pay $5,000 a year retainers to each of three experts, just to have them on call, then to pay the same or less for a fulltime man who might do the work of all three but not as well. As one basic project he wants to get Louis Hausman On Oct. 12 he becomes custodian of television's image BROADCASTING, October 5, 1959