Catching Up With CBS College Sports Exec VP & GM Steve Herbst

CBS College Sports' Steve Herbst

Q: What did you learn from the nearly 20 years you spent at the NBA?

Herbst: Micromanaging is the right way to go. Being on top of every detail, and approaching everything like it's the most important part of your business, is a lesson I learned at the NBA.

Q: What's on your priority list for CBS College?

Herbst: Distribution and marketing/programming. We need to use a sophisticated marketing and programming approach to drive distribution. We have to make clear who we are and what we can offer people. We have some work to do in that area to identify who we are.

Q: How are you different from ESPNU, Fox College and the Big Ten Network?

Herbst: I see our network as a network of the people. We'll serve it up as a colleague and a co-worker to sports information directors, athletic directors and conference commissioners. I want to get that one-to-one relationship with the people on the ground at the campuses all over the country.

Q: What changes are you bringing to the network?

Herbst: Six months from now, we will get the added live games and standard nightly coverage that we wanted. But we also have gotten to know some special stories from the athletes that are out there. Today's sports news is not always good. We want to offer something that shows the power of the human spirit and all that's good with these kids and what they're doing on the playing fields, how they help in the community, how they represent their schools, how they represent their conferences. Those are the stories we want to tell.

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