Views on News • April 10th, 2008

More bad news for the Eye

by Chris Lato

Just a couple days after word came down that CBS and CNN were exploring a strategic alliance comes news that Katie Couric may be on her way out because her ratings are bottoming out.

What jumps out at you as you read the article? How about $15 million a year for Katie Couric? I mean, holy cow – that much dough to read a teleprompter? I know, I’m being a tad simplistic, but really, Couric is not world-renowned for her scary talent as a journalist. And I refuse to believe she’s putting in 18-hour days to justify that outlandish salary and writing all her own copy. Whoever OK’d that contract should be run out of town on a rail.

And I’m not singling out Couric – that is just an outlandish sum to pay any nightly news talking head.

This bothers me particularly as you read that CBS affiliates across the country are being gutted. The reporters on the front lines are paying the price for what I would consider mismanagement of the news product on a massive scale. I’ve worked in local newsrooms. I know the business can be nasty, harsh and cruel. I’ve been fired from a newsroom for ‘economic’ reasons. You are underpaid and overworked and job security is typically a laughable notion.

I have a feeling that cannot be said for Ms. Couric, or any of the other overpaid anchors, for that matter.

I speculated in an earlier post on how much longer the nightly network news can survive. Here’s a thought: Take that $15 million. Hire someone for the measly sum of, I don’t know, $2 million? Does that seem reasonable?

Then, take the rest of the money and pour it into developing young, smart, hungry reporters and producers. Not just at CBS News HQ, but across the country. Try to improve the news product. Help out those folks at the local level. Treat it like a farm team. Refocus. Get hungry again. Eye of the tiger.

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Views on News • April 8th, 2008

The changing face of news

by Chris Lato

Perhaps this was inevitable, but it is still an interesting development: long considered the pioneering TV news network, CBS News is looking for a partner, and may find it in CNN. For its part, CBS says the story is bunk.

Some may bemoan the continuing consolidation in the news biz. Fewer and fewer entities own more and more news outlets.

And CBS definitely shot itself in the foot with its emphasis on ‘personality’ with the hiring of Katie Couric, who has proved to be an expensive ratings disaster.

Still, in an age of 24-hour news cycles, where you can register for breaking news updates on your cell phone, the notion of an ‘evening news’ broadcast feels antiquated and irrelevant. The shows themselves aren’t breaking stories like they used to. It’s akin to the afternoon newspaper: the nightly network news just doesn’t fit with the way people are choosing to access their news anymore. There are too many options out there, on demand. When news breaks, why wait for the nightly news? Instant analysis is available all over the internet.

So, you may wonder, why do prime-time TV ‘newsmagazines’ continue to thrive? For starters, they are cheaper to produce than series television. Also, they are free to be more sensationalistic, aiming for straight-up entertainment value not bound by the same notions of ‘journalistic integrity’ as the nightly news. Exhibit A: “To Catch a Predator.”

How much longer will the nightly network news survive? As long as they’re generating ad revenue, I would wager. But it’s hard to believe the end isn’t in the not-too-distant future.

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Leadership, Speeches, Views on News • March 25th, 2008

Oops!

by Chris Lato

Wow, Hillary Clinton really stepped in it this time. This video is positively damning.

I have no idea what Senator Clinton was thinking when she made these claims, but in a race this tight you have no margin for error - especially the kind of error that can be easily fact-checked.

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