Annette Brun, vice president of HGTV, and Doug Hurst, senior vice president and general manager of non-linear distribution at Scripps Networks, spoke to journalism and electronic media students and other interested people about the changing media industry in an lecture Tuesday. 

"We've been everywhere with the Cable Maverick Lecture," Jana Henthorn, senior vice president of programs and education at The Cable Center, said.  From the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Texas and Michigan State University, to the backyard of Scripps Networks, the Cable Maverick Lecture has been cultivating the next generation for the cable television industry.  Brun and Hurst concentrated on how HGTV has evolved over the years.

Adapting to the changes from linear media, such as newspapers, to interactive media, such as websites, HGTV has undergone many transformations since its humble beginnings as the Home and Garden Network. Amongst new television stations entering the industry, HGTV is only one of two stations still running since its launch in 1994, the other being the History Channel.  For this reason, Hurst and Brun are very proud to have been with the station since its beginning. 

Brun attributes the success of HGTV to the strong E.W. Scripps Company, which had over a century of experience in the communications industry at the birth of HGTV.  Another reason for the station to have lasted is its niche in the television market, he said.  There was nothing similar to it on television at the time, explains Brun.  Another part of Brun's work at HGTV is to turn the network into a brand.   

Television can't do everything and that is where new media or interactive media enters the game, said Hurst.  Where you start your career isn't where you are going to end up. Doug Hurst, senior vice president and general manager of non-linear distirubtion at Scripps Networks One of the different techniques that HGTV uses is its interactive program, like their newest program to be launched later this year, DesignStar, a reality show to help pull in a younger audience.

"We've never thought we'd get in the reality business," Brun said.   Currently, the median age of HGTV viewers is 53, but the target age group is between 35 and 40. 

Dream Home Giveaway is a sweepstakes that HGTV launched 12 years ago and has become the most successful sweepstakes in cable television, said Hurst. 

"We've received over 40 million entries every year into the sweepstakes, which is just another means to distribute HGTV brand out into the population," he said. Ecologue.com, HGTV's first attempt at meeting the going green trend, will be launched later this year as part of their innovative methods of distributing products. 

Brun and Hurst contribute HGTV's ongoing success to its ability to tap into the Scripps Networks's other media areas such as newspapers, magazines, radio and the Internet.  However, it is important to recognize that you will have failures, said Hurst. 

"Our business model is get in and get out," Hurst said.  The Shop at Home Network was a television shopping station that failed, explained Hurst, who showed clips of on-air bloopers from old episodes.

Brun and Hurst ended the lecture by telling the students about their personal journey to get to where they are today. 

"Where you start your career isn't where you are going to end up," Hurst said. Hurst said she studied hotel management in college, but then ended up at HGTV.  Brun was a communications major, but worked odd jobs such as writing verses for greeting cards until he ended up at HGTV.