Ambitious but not yet ready to be away from home, Kristina Lockwood changed course after her first year of college on the mainland and instead dove headfirst into the professional world back in Hawai‘i. Landing a job in sales at MidWeek at only 19, she compensated for her lack of experience with an unwavering work ethic, strong communication skills and confidence beyond her years. It was there she met the first of several mentors Lockwood credits for what is approaching a successful 30-year career in media.

Lockwood’s transition from print to broadcast came two years later when she was recruited by the CBS affiliate KGMB. She spent the next five years learning the ins and out of broadcast television before mining that knowledge at KITV, where she made the jump from account executive into her first leadership role as the station’s national sales manager.

From there Lockwood continued her steady climb up the corporate ladder, first as national sales manager for KGMB and KHON when they were under common ownership, and then as general sales manager for KGMB after the two stations split. She joined Cox Media in San Diego for a number of years as its local sales manager and was promoted to director of sales, sinking her teeth into the California market before returning to Hawai‘i to assume her current role as president and general manager of KHON.

“Having worked my way up in this industry, I’ve been in the shoes of many of our employees here, so I understand the challenges they face,” Lockwood says. “And thanks to my time at Cox Media, I’ve also had a lot of training and development around building a great culture and creating a great work environment for employees, and that’s what I’ve tried to bring to KHON.”

She now leads the station’s 96 employees in navigating the rapidly evolving world of news media. “The media landscape has changed dramatically in the five years I’ve been back,” Lockwood says. “People aren’t waiting to watch the news when they get home at 6 o’clock to find out what happened that day. They already know by the time they walk in the door—but they do want to hear an update or a solution.”

With the rise of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, the public is hungry for information all day every day, and media providers are finding new ways to engage and inform viewers around the clock, from the moment they wake up to the time they set their phones aside and drift off to sleep at night.

It’s a new dynamic confronting nearly all businesses in the digital age, and one that Lockwood is facing head on. The company has made several additions to its digital team, and the entire newsroom is involved in growing KHON’s online presence. “We consider KHON2 a full-service media company because of all of the different products and services we offer,” she says.

Lockwood has also been involved in expanding the station’s lineup of local programming over the past few years, adding an additional evening newscast, KHON2 News at 9, and launching the lifestyle show Living808 and the cooking program Sam Choy’s in the Kitchen. This past year, KHON debuted Take 2, a follow-up to the morning newscast Wake Up 2day, to provide viewers with more in-depth coverage of stories covered during the main show.

Whether growing KHON’s audiences on air or online, the goal is the same—working for Hawai‘i. “We have a different approach than other stations in the market,” Lockwood says. “When we choose what stories to tell, we’re also thinking about what that story means to the viewer at home. If it’s a problem, how do we find a solution? Who can fix it? What can we learn from it?”

Working for Hawai‘i also includes working for each other, Lockwood says, and for her that means creating an environment ripe for creativity, collaboration and enterprise thinking. “At one time, there were a lot of walls between the different departments,” she says. “We’ve been looking to break down those barriers and really come together to accomplish mutually beneficial goals.”

Though she’s quick to praise the work of KHON’s newest team members, Lockwood stresses the importance of employee retention in the evolution of a business. “Long-term employees are the heart of a company,” Lockwood says. “There are some incredibly talented people who have been added to KHON who are bringing new ideas and fresh approaches to what we do, but there’s something to be said for those who have been here and who believe in our mission and vision and want to continue to evolve with us.”

The people skills that got Lockwood her first job in media are still instrumental in her work today. “I believe you are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with,” Lockwood says. “I really try to align myself with the right people, both in and out of my professional career—people who want to learn, who are open to new ideas and feedback. If you can find the right people to be a part of that, that’s the type of teamwork that helps an organization grow.”