Scott S. Weiss

Scott Weiss is an American businessman and author. Weiss was a prominent executive at Turner Broadcasting Corporation for over a decade. He notably worked on a number of major CNN projects, including CNN Airport and CNN Local Edition. He was also responsible for expanding the company's network distribution. In 1994, Weiss moved into the field of spoken communication with Speakeasy Inc.

In 2012, he released his first book titled, Dare: Accepting the Challenge of Trusting Leadership.

Weiss attended Michigan State University, receiving his degree from the College of Communications Arts and Sciences. He also served as an adjunct professor at the Georgia Tech's School of Management.

Early in Weiss' career, he worked for four years at The Southmark Corporation, a Wall Street investment bank. He remained at the company until the crash of 1987, which resulted in the company falling into liquidation.

In 1990, while Executive Vice President of Turner Broadcasting, Weiss was responsible for forming a new division for the company, Turner Private Networks. He also pioneered the launch of a new television platform, beginning with the launch of CNN Checkout Channel. The new station was a completely new concept and way of viewing the news while in store. It launched at 150 stores across the US, in partnership with four major brands, A&P, Kroger, Finast and Acme. The channel differed from other news platforms as it was a number of short news segments repeated for in intervals for those waiting at the til. Ads would then be broadcast between each segment for brands that had signed up to the channel, rather than generic CNN advertisements. The launch of CNN Checkout Channel was meant to provide another platform for CNN content besides television at home; Turner Private Networks vice president Scott Weiss explained that "I think we are reacting to what we believe is an insatiable appetite in our generation for information. They want it live. They want it now, on an instant basis." ActMedia had predicted that CNN Checkout Channel would operate in at least 5,000 stores by 1992, offering at least 60 million impressions per week.

Shortly after the checkout channel was launched, Weiss implemented a similar idea at airports with the launch of CNN Airport in 1991. This was the second pioneering channel into the out-of-home programming market by CNN. The network originally was test launched at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Hartsfield-Atlanta International Airport and O'Hare International Airport, and officially debuted on January 20, 1992 as the CNN Airport Network. CNN Airport Network airs at 60 airports in North America. CNN Airport alternates between CNN and HLN news programming; it also airs additional weather, business and travel segments designed for air travelers. It also innovated by partnering with sports channels to allow major sporting events to be shown in airports. This included NBA playoff games and the Super Bowl. Weiss also created and launched CNN local Edition, allowing local market a way to inseat local news updates to increase viewership.

Weiss joined Speakeasy in 1994 before he purchasing the company in 2004. The company now has offices in Atlanta, San Francisco, New York City and Amsterdam. While at Speakeasy, the company became focused on assisting executives with spoken communication. The shift of the company to focus on spoken communication meant Weiss regularly offered advice and has become a leading expert in the field.

Weiss wrote a book titled Dare: Accepting the Challenge of Trusting Leadership, which focused on communication and honesty.

The book received positive reviews in Inc. magazine, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Fortune and CNN Money. It also reached Amazon's Best Sellers List in the first week of its release. The book was also awarded the gold medal for ethics at a book awards ceremony. Dare studies a number of different communication problems, including the common theory that often "faking it" in business is a good thing. Weiss studies different examples of how honesty and integrity result in better outcomes for the individual.

Dare has also received acclaim for the way it approaches harsh truths, with many major executives often falling short in speaking engagements because they have never honed their speaking skills. According to Weiss, this is particularly prevalent at business events or major presentations, such as TED. He also speaks about the dangers of the younger generations focus on digital communication becoming a challenge in the future.