Former Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons: Media World Divided Into "Suits" And "Talent"

First Thirty Days' Ariane de Bonvoisin interviewed former Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons, who stepped down officially in January and was succeeded by Jeff Bewkes. The interview touches on Parsons' feelings towards change, what is up next for him, and why he finds peace in the Italian vineyard he recently purchased.

Below, Parsons explains that the media world is divided into two fundamental camps — suits and talent — and explains all the offers he's rejected since leaving Time Warner, including a television hosting gig on a morning business show.

How do you answer if you sit next to a stranger on a plane, and he or she asks, "so what do you do?"

I used to say to people 'I'm a media executive,' but now I've gotten comfortable with the following: When they say 'what do you do?' I say, 'I'm a suit.' And they say, 'well what is a suit?' 'A suit is a business guy who isn't talent, because in the media world it's divided into two classes or species of human beings. You have suits and you have talents. The suits run the money and do the business and the talent stands in front of the camera or behind the microphone and conducts interviews or acts.

What is one of the craziest jobs you have been offered since you left?

Someone asked me if I would be interested in being the head football coach at Syracuse University. [Someone asked] if I wanted to go on television as a commentator on one of these morning business shows. The usual suspects [have come along]--like teaching, taking over another Fortune 500 or Fortune 50 large conglomerate--but none that I have particularly zeroed in on. Right now I have other things I would like to do.

Listen to the entire interview here, or read Ariane's Huffington Post blog, "My Interview with Dick Parsons," here.

Comments

[Average]

As usual, there are more suits than tallent.

[mpgarr]

Isn't that the way every business is run now??? Increasingly in most busineses---it is the suits who make the big money----we are no longer about producing anything real--we are about moving money around and the people who do that are the ones who get the loot.