The Paducah Sun
Aug. 22--PADUCAH, Ky. --John Lansing, who will take over Jan. 1 as president of Scripps Networks, parent company of Home & Garden Television, has deep Paducah roots.
He grew up here and played basketball at St. Mary High School with Russ Cochran, a longtime touring golf professional. Immediately after graduating in 1975, Lansing took a job at $1.65 an hour running a studio camera at WPSD television. He was promoted to film processor and then was bitten by "the news bug" as one of the station's first video news photographers.
"The five years I had at WPSD were incredibly impactful on my career," Lansing said. "They really have a great community conscience, so the whole values of local broadcasting and TV production there formed the foundation of my career."
Lansing, 47, said then-Managing Director Fred Paxton was the first of many "wonderful mentors" who helped him advance in the industry, starting with WAVE-TV in Louisville after leaving Paducah. "That's been the biggest catalyst," he said.
Lansing was one of the brightest and most popular young workers ever at Channel 6, Paxton said. "Every job we gave him he just performed superbly, and that proved to be true throughout his career when other people gave him opportunities."
Paxton said he has never been surprised by Lansing's success, although it was hard to project that the youth would one day head a major television company.
Lansing's climb to the top of one of the nation's fastest-growing networks is not typical of industry executives. He never earned a college degree despite studying marketing and business administration at Bellarmine College in Louisville, the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky.
Lansing's lack of sheepskin belies his success. Aside from being a network executive, he is a visiting faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla., and a member of the Scripps Howard Foundation Board of Trustees.
"I just really loved TV from the beginning and have enjoyed everything from running a camera to running a newsroom to running a cable network," Lansing said. "It's been a real passion for me."
Lansing, who has been executive vice president of Scripps Networks since January, will succeed President Ed Spray, who is retiring at the end of the year. Spray helped launch HGTV 10 years ago as a member of the original executive management team.
Before becoming executive vice president, Lansing led strategic and operating oversight for the Scripps broadcast television station group, first as vice president of station operations and then as senior vice president of television. During his nine years with Scripps, it has grown from a single, niche cable network into a portfolio of national television brands and a division employing 1,700 people.
Aside from HGTV, Scripps Networks operates the Food Network, the Do It Yourself Network, Fine Living, and Shop At Home Network. The division also runs some of the most popular Web sites in the home and life categories, including HGTV.com and FoodNetwork.com.
A "cocooning" phenomenon since the 9/11 attacks has driven huge demand for home shows and do-it-yourself Internet material, in which Scripps specializes, Lansing said.
"When I started in 1975, there were three channels, and now there are 103," he said. "It's a paradox of sorts that the more narrowly defined you are, the more appealing you are in a fragmented industry."
HGTV's presence has risen from 6.5 million homes when it started in 1994 to about 86 million, making it one of the top 15 networks, according to Nielsen Media Research. There were 20.2 million "unique visitor" hits on HGTV.com from January through April, up from 15.9 million during the same period in 2003.
Greatly increased viewership and advertising revenue have propelled Scripps Networks to national prominence. Profits for the second quarter ending June 30 were $87.5 million, up 56 percent from $55.9 million during the same period last year.
Lansing said his main focus as president will be continued growth by understanding rapidly changing viewer habits for TV, the Web and video on demand. He cited TiVo-like digital video recorders as an example of how people have come to preserve programming to fit busy schedules.
Lansing previously was vice president and general manager of the Scripps-owned television station in Cleveland, WEWS, and vice president and station manager at the Scripps station in Detroit, WXYZ. He also was news director at WBBM-TV in Chicago and WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, where he was born.
Lansing moved to Paducah when he was 5. His parents are the late Bill and Kay Lansing, who had five children. Lansing's brother Tom, who attended high school here, is married to the former Jeanine Hunt of Paducah, and they live in Indianapolis. Lansing's niece, Amy Cope, lives in Paducah.
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