Piers Morgan began his career in print media under such journalism giants as Rupert Murdoch and became the youngest ever editor of the “News of the World.” Now he headlines CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live” and is one of the most recognized names in TV news. On Thursday, Morgan will be interviewing 2013 PromaxBDA Lifetime Achievement Award winner Brian Grazer at 2:00 p.m. in the Diamond Ballroom.

PromaxBDA’s Jonathan Block-Verk sat down with Morgan before The Conference to speak about his Twitter persona, Jeff Zucker’s transformation of CNN and the importance of taking risks in big media.

JONATHAN BLOCK-VERK: You started off in print and tabloid. What are some of the lessons you learned in print that you still carry with you in television?

PIERS MORGAN: I think I would refer directly to Rupert Murdoch. I was editor of “News of the World” for two years, and I reported directly to him two or three times a week. He became a master class at how to handle the media. Murdoch had a unique fearlessness, in my experience, out of all the people I’ve met in media. He’s a risk taker and he’s a visionary.

You always regret the risks you never took. In any business or in any company, whatever you do, there are two types of people: There are people who have inherent skills by taking a risk that may fail. There are also people who are not prepared to do that. Most people fall into the “not prepared to do that” category. Whereas, all the great visionaries that I’ve been honored to work with and alongside, like Richard Branson or Rupert Murdoch, always say, “Let’s just try it.” And I think that’s the ethos I’ve tried to have with all the things I’ve done, and you just have to go for it sometimes.

BLOCK-VERK: One of the sessions at The Conference is on “Sellebrity” – selling the idea of celebrity on places like TMZ. Are there similarities between marketing a show on something like TMZ or a show on CNN?




MORGAN: Yes, of course there are. Actually, we all want the same thing. I can pretend that I want to produce the most worthy, generously magnificent hour in the history of television, but that’s a complete waste of time. I want to produce a compelling hour of informative, newsy, entertaining and provocative television every night. I want people to know about it and talk about it. You have to work on your brand, and you have to have a publicist like I do to get you into the right places, the right parties, the right magazines – it’s a huge operation. You’ve got to get your props right, and then you’ve got to sell it, properly and defensively. That’s what we work on every day: improving the product and then making sure it gets to the right eyeballs, and as many as possible. I don’t care what anybody says. My job is to get people to watch my show. I’m in the ratings business.

BLOCK-VERK: Your new boss, Zucker, is notoriously brand focused, rooted in entertainment. Are you seeing changes? How do you see the CNN brand changing?

MORGAN: It’s hard to project what his vision is with the company. He’s a producer and a newsman at heart. What I love about Jeff Zucker is that he’s completely all over the show. He’s watching each show; he’s commenting on it; he’s texting us; he’s in the office giving us ideas, advice and criticism. He’s completely engaged about what we’re putting on air. That’s a breath of fresh air at CNN. We don’t have to always agree with everything he says. But I love the constant dialogue and the fact that the president is really watching, commenting, observing. He’s someone who’s prepared to take on risks.

We’re all in the same game. We just want to get the ratings up and produce great programs. But the difficulty comes when the agenda is quiet, and there’s nothing much happening. That’s where you need each hour of news that’s very compelling and that’s where you’ll see Jeff really making his mark – how to make every hour of CNN lively and dynamic, and that we’re already seeing him do.

BLOCK-VERK: You’re engaged with and active in social media. What are your key tenants of social media?




MORGAN: First, you have to be true to yourself. Your Twitter feed has to reflect your personality. I’m not interested in following people where PR is doing and covering everything they’re saying, because I know their voice they’re putting out on Twitter is completely different to their real self. I think that’s cheesy and pointless. My Twitter feed, whether people like it or hate it, is entirely my personality. I’m highly opinionated, I’m pretty confident that my view is always the right one, but I’m prepared for ones that challenge me or try to embarrass me. I think that’s important.




BLOCK-VERK: What are you looking forward to learning from and asking Brian Grazer?




MORGAN: I’m interested in learning about how his industry has changed in this new Internet era; how you promote and market moves; how you can make money from movies. The music industry has really been decimated from the Internet and doesn’t make money from record sales. They only make money from touring and merchandise. I imagine the movie industry has been through a similarly dramatic change.

With Brian, I’m interested in how he has evolved as a filmmaker. The types of movies people want to see now compared to 40 years ago I imagine are remarkably different; where he sees the line in terms of depictions of violence and guns in movies. Does he see any correlation between that and people who have gone out and actually done those crazy things in real life? Brian has been in the business a very long time. He takes the business of making movies very seriously, and we’ll have a great overview of these issues.

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