Jeff Zucker cuts costs at NBC by killing pilots; LA Times seeks to cut editorial costs

Jeff Zucker announced that NBC will no longer follow standard pilot development practice. (See NY Times). At the same time the LA Times lost yet another editor over the question of editorial budgets (LA Times).

    I do not dispute that the current TV development season is an inefficient process and that newspapers have grave financial issues facing them, but here’s what bothers me: in both cases, management is looking to improve their bottom line by cutting what is surely one of the smallest items in their budget: editorial and creative. I do not see Jeff Zucker awarding himself a pay cut — traditionally the argument is that at the highest corporate levels you need to pay salaries that seem exorbitant in relation to the pay of creatives to keep the best people. I wonder if there aren’t talented executives who would leap to do the job, and do it better, at less pay, and not at the expense of writers.

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