“Live news teaches you some incredibly strong lessons: that every day is a new day, and it’s never too late to fix something.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I’m a big believer in picking your boss, not the job. Great people create great jobs.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We need to get rid of bullying. We need to get rid of abuse. We need to get rid of harassment. We need to get rid of the casting couch. Instead, we need to build the bench.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We’re trying to create the connections of today that become the next generation’s memories of tomorrow.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“One of our secret-sauce powers is that our people don’t just write checks and place the ads, but our employees go the extra mile to get things done.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Hearst makes smart investments and partnerships across important industries, and HearstLive is the perfect opportunity to highlight the amazing innovations coming out of all of those brands.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“The directness of my mother is clearly in my voice. Her opinion is always a very strong opinion at the dining room table. I think she empowered me to have the same drive.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“One of the epidemics in our industry is the abuse of power.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We aren’t afraid to take creative risks, which is the main ingredient in our recipe for change.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“What I see around the management team meetings and the conference tables I sit at is that there isn’t that same comfort level in other women who are rising the ranks. And I don’t know how to fix that.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“The perseverance and the strength and the determination and the sacrifice that so many millions of people have had to endure to form this country is far greater than anything that we can really imagine.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“My interests were more extracurricular, more external, and more social than they were academic. My birthday is also in December, so I was one of the older kids. That meant I learned social leadership early on. I was always just much better in a team and work environment than I was in a classroom environment.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“There’s still too much filler, copycat programming that’s out there. We work so hard to pioneer new ideas, and then those ideas are just regurgitated by other networks. That’s not good for anybody, I think. That’s not good for our business. That’s not good for our audience.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I have an innate passion and competitive streak to win and to create, and I want our team to be better than everybody else. Some people thrive in that environment, and some people don’t.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“There are very few black-and-white truths in management or in business, but one that I have found is that people either hire people who are smarter than them, or people hire people they can control.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Great managers recognize that there is no one way to manage. You may have to be 10 different managers to get the best out of your team.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“A show could be 10 minutes, seven minutes, 94 minutes. We just need to tell the stories that need to be told.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Both of my grandfathers served in World War II, both in the Pacific. One wouldn’t talk about it, and one would.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“If we can be changing some lives along the way, that’s the holy grail on television.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“It’s not enough just to put great television shows out anymore.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Historically, we’ve had to think in increments of 30 or 60 minutes. And now we have to think in increments of six seconds to six hours and everything in between.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I’m not a very patient person. I’ll take those quick risks to see if it’s going to work versus taking the long and tortuous road of trying to guarantee myself that something will work. That’s like self-mutilation to me.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I am here to tell you, TV is not dead. Rather, it is constantly evolving as we are. My view is that we are in the next Golden Age of content. If AOL, Google, Netflix, Amazon, and Yahoo felt TV was dying, they would not be so eager to play in our sandbox. It is, after all, TV content that’s driving their business.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“It’s a terrible thing to say, but I hated school. I’m very ADD, and my report card always said, ‘If only she performed to her potential.’”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I’m a very goal-oriented person, and work is really rewarding. It’s how I take care of my family, and ultimately, I’m never going to let that responsibility fall to anybody but myself.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“It’s an honor to be the only woman in the room a lot of times, but I wish I weren’t the only woman in the room. I still have to think in a calculated way about how to speak and what to speak about.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Personally, I feel a strong responsibility to make sure that we have women equally represented in our executive suites and that we employ women in front of and behind the camera and in our writers’ rooms.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“The beauty of the media business is all about what is next. You put your mistakes behind you. Learn from them and move on to the next project. Having some degree of success is integral to a risk-taking balance.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“In the media business and as a creative executive, if you don’t take risks, you’re dead in the water. Calculated risk taking is essential for success. No one said it was easy.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I run a creative company, and the best way to support creatives is to make them fearless and willing to take big swings. That is an important part of our culture at A&E Networks.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Obviously, there needs to be parity. I think as more women get to the top, we need to make sure that is the case. It is our responsibility.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“It’s hard for me to accept the argument that millennials are not watching TV. I’m not one to believe that our culture of TV consumption is changing dramatically. It’s just how we consume and where we consume it that’s changing.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“To address what seems like an endless cycle of gender inequity in media, I believe we need to think beyond what our industry has already tried to do through mentorships and internships. We need to stop talking and start moving the needle, and one solution is to simply give women jobs.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“TV is our window on the world. It’s a powerful medium for great stories that become part of our very, very personal journey.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I love it when a man knows his place – right, ladies?”
― Nancy Dubuc
“When I think about too much content out there, one of the things that comes to mind for me is just the volume of really outstanding creators there are.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I would love to see more swings in areas that we haven’t explored. I can’t necessarily tell you what that is – I think you know it when you see it – but I think we’ve had a lot of the same-themed shows in broadcast, but those shows are still performing.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“When you look at the increase in the number of scripted series and the number of unscripted hours, the pool of producers hasn’t grown at the same rate. So I think there’s a bit of a creative tax on the system.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“A lot of people make hay about ‘American Idol”s ratings and ‘Empire.’”
― Nancy Dubuc
“My focus – even before becoming CEO – has always been memorable and unique content. And one of the most important things we did to reinforce that was create A+E Studios.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“What someone does when viewing content on a tablet is different than the lean-back mentality of watching on the big screen.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We’ve learned that you can’t just put your promos up in a digital environment and expect the consumer will accept that as shortform content. It needs to have a unique point of view and style and execution that is tailored to that platform.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“A+E Networks has been my home for over a decade. I am so proud of these brands and my A+E colleagues who are truly the best in the business.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“At our core, we are a content company. That content has to be the very best. You can’t be a company of this size and be doing what everybody else is doing.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I’m not a very patient person.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We were an entertainment brand, and if we were going to compete in an era of incredible growth in the cable industry, I felt we actually needed to be entertaining.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Sometimes people get fairly obscure just for the creative license of it, and that can backfire. Iconic stories are iconic for a reason, and there are so many incredible, iconic history stories that have not been told that we don’t need to go too deep in the well yet.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“It doesn’t make any sense for us to do a scripted series if it’s not going to be big, so we have to be really disciplined about them.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“With a strong foundation in scripted programming firmly established by ‘Army Wives’ and ‘Drop Dead Diva,’ Lifetime is aggressively expanding its drama series development plate with powerful programs from creative auspices who have strong pedigrees in producing stand-out programming.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Taking action against a show because of one individual’s behavior could put hundreds of jobs in jeopardy.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I think we all have to ask ourselves, as leaders, do we have the right processes in place for complaints to be filed and for people to feel protected?”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I’m enormously proud that I can do a deal with the National Women’s Soccer League to showcase the power and passion of women athletes as positive role models, not only for my daughter but also for my son.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“There is a lot of content out there for the female demographic.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“It’s easy for the board to say, ‘Well, add makeover shows.’ The No. 1 show for women in the United States is ‘The Walking Dead.’ That’s not a makeover show.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Celebrating failure is key. Half of what we do fails, at least.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“It’s my job… to push people out of their comfort zones. But we got to have a reason to do it. We don’t do it gratuitously.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We have to take a really close look at making sure that we are more surgical and more tailored in dealing with the production community and our producing partners.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“There needs to be a bigger focus on creative innovation versus business models and cash flow.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“It takes a long time for things to get off the ground.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“It never seems like a good idea to do something that’s way out there. But usually, the thing that’s way out there is where we are heading.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Writing a check is easy. The opportunity for real change happens when there’s a person who comes to you with real passion to create a movement.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“When I stepped into the Lifetime role in 2010, I did a listening tour of what was going on for women in this country. There was such a parallel in Hollywood with women talking about how there are stories that are not getting made and that talented young women are not getting the opportunity to direct and write.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I grew up in Bristol, R.I. I had grandparents and great-grandparents nearby, and because I was the only grandchild until I was 12, I was the center of a lot of adult attention.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“A+E has always looked in places where others didn’t want to look. There’s a service in that.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Owning content and original content has been our lifeblood – we’ve never been a suite of brands that’s been reliant on a movie library or on rented series from other networks.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I think it’s important for History to keep experimenting with their shows. The more documentary-driven, the returning series, are the bottom of the iceberg under the ocean that keeps it moving, and then it’s important to take those swings and see if we can ignite a spark with new audiences.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Lifetime never had any unscripted shows, really. It just had ‘Project Runway,’ which was a bit of an island.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I think that the strategy around FYI is really a corporate strategy, and that’s that every one of our brands that we invest in have to matter and that we need to commit to building brands and investing in those brands, or we need to get out of that business.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“In the media business and as a creative executive, if you don’t take risks, you’re dead in the water. Calculated risk-taking is essential for success.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I interned at NBC News and had a great experience there in both New York City and Washington. After graduating, I got an entry-level production job at PBS in Boston. There, I developed the bug for programming and production.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“The best advice I give to young people starting out is choose your boss. Regardless of gender, I think it is important to have someone who supports you and lets you take risks without fear of failure.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“My heart has always been in programming and marketing.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Veterans’ issues have always spoken to me.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“You can have whatever platform you want, but without great content, you don’t have anything.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“You can’t manage the creative process on a quarterly basis. The way we’re structured has really helped us grow.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“The History brand has long been a supporter of not only our troops but organizations that support our troops.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“It’s always strange to get an honor from people who are the ones that should be honored.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“To effect meaningful change, you have to look at who’s in the boardrooms, who has the financial control of businesses, and who has the greenlighting power.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We knew in our gut that History needed to be more than a timeline.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I think the culture and DNA of our organization is to take risks.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Successful shows will always generate great business deals in the future.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Beautycon has done an incredible job growing and evolving their business into a major player not only in the experiential marketplace, but also the digital content and ecommerce businesses.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We don’t see the Lifetime brand as just a television brand. We see it as a female media brand. It has to represent what she is interested in, up and down the spectrum, in all kinds of content.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We have a powerful portfolio of brands that are well-positioned for future growth, both domestically and internationally.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“In Vice, I saw all of it in one. I saw a studio. I saw a content creator. I saw an agency. I saw a distributor. We want to learn from them. They’re talking to a generation we’re struggling to connect to as an industry.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We’ve always been for women, and we always will be for women. How we express that will be fluid over time as generations move forward.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“You had a generation of women, of which I’m part, where it was a stigma to be associated with feminism; there was a backlash. Now you have a generation that is clearly embracing feminism because, at the end of the day, the definition of feminism is just equality.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“If you look at the coverage of female sports and athletics across any of the broadcasters that participate in league rights and/or sports programming, women are underrepresented, and it’s a chance and an opportunity for Lifetime to support that movement and the importance of athletics and competition for girls and women.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“If you’re going to be a media brand and not just a linear television brand, then you have to make sure you’re speaking to all women and all interests, so it may mean that you end up smaller audiences serving individual pieces of content, but the aggregate is what’s important and what we’re paying attention to.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We’d all like to be in the business where we don’t have to report our numbers, too. You’re dealing with a Netflix and an Amazon that don’t have to report their viewership. They’re not sharing those numbers, so how do you work with a creative entity to renegotiate future seasons when nobody has metrics?”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I know that when I’m watching a drama that I love, I’m disappointed when it’s over at the end of an hour.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Storytelling takes many forms, and even feature-length storytelling is often 90 minutes or two hours. There’s nothing stopping us from trying to do that on a week-to-week basis.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“You have to follow the consumer, and the consumer will be in control.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“In this rapidly changing media environment, business transformations need to be closely linked to communications strategies.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Panna is focused on the intersection of premium video content and digital product to deliver great experiences. Given those are areas of focus for FYI, we are extremely excited to partner with Panna.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“So much of our audience is on mobile and online platforms, but there’s something special, unique, and unexpected about engaging with such great content at the street level.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“’Cinnamon Girl’ is a game changer for our network and is exactly the type of show we want to deliver.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Vice has a bold voice and a distinctive model in the marketplace. This channel represents a strategic fit and a new direction for the future of our portfolio of media assets.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Shane Smith has led Vice from a fledgling magazine into a global media brand, and all of us at A+E are excited to work with him and his passionate and innovative team.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Consumers are looking for those trusted brands to help with search and discovery and streaming content choices.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“When you meet a veteran, thank them for their service.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We knew that bringing a level of entertainment value to the subject of history was the key to our success.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I think people take for granted the success of the original content at A&E Networks and in building brands. People have selective memory on how long that takes.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We know romance novels are a huge thing. Can we do a romance novel show on our network? I’m not sure.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“Each generation wants their own form of entertainment and their own form of storytelling.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We love the Vice guys; we believe in them. We’re investors. We believe in them, in the creative work that they’ve done… What they built is incredible.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“You can never rest on what you did yesterday; it’s old.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“’The Hatfields and McCoys’ is a classic tale of American history. These are names that are widely recognized, yet few people know the real story that made them famous.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“As a global media company, A+E Networks continually seeks to create new and exciting content that will attract audiences today, tomorrow, and beyond. By investing in Vice, we are thrilled about our potential to further deliver content that meets the demands of the latest consumption trends.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“As a former college athlete, I know the importance of sports in the lives of women and girls, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to join forces with NWSL and U.S. Soccer to ensure professional women athletes are elevated as the entire country can watch and be inspired by their strength and athleticism.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“From Abby Lee Miller’s intensity and her students’ incredible performances to their devoted moms and its high drama, ‘Dance Moms’ has become one of the most compelling shows on television.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“’The Client List’ represents everything we want to be – fresh, exciting, and original with attitude.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“I can’t count the number of times I’ve sat in a meeting where it’s been 20 men and me.”
― Nancy Dubuc
“We’re not seeing enough women rising to the top.”
― Nancy Dubuc
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