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CNN shakes up news administration
CBSMarketwatch ^ | 01/23/04 | Jon Friedman

Posted on 01/23/2004 7:10:30 PM PST by Pikamax

CNN shakes up news administration By Jon Friedman, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 5:40 PM ET Jan. 23, 2004

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - CNN, a unit of Time Warner, is shaking up its U.S. news organization and announcing a new Washington bureau chief.

TRADING CENTER

Princell Hair, executive vice president and general manager of CNN's U.S. operations who joined CNN last year, said Friday in an internal statement, a copy of which was obtained by CBSMarketWatch.com, that he is making sweeping changes.

In Washington, Hair appointed David Bohrman, the executive producer of Aaron Brown's show "NewsNight," to be the new bureau chief.

Hair's memo said CNN is "working with" the previous bureau chief, Kathryn Kross, "on a new role with the network." He didn't offer any details.

Kross didn't return a phone call placed to her in the Washington bureau.

In Atlanta, where is CNN has its headquarters, some staffers were concerned that Hair's changes underscore the management's desire to centralize what it had often been a de-centralized news-gathering operation, and a consolidation of the general news production.

Hair said to his troops: "As good as this news organization is -- and make no mistake, it is the best in the world -- it can be even better."

CNN is facing considerable pressure to re-establish itself. This is an opportune time for CNN to assert itself, in the early stages of the presidential campaigns as well as a news-rich year that will also include the rebuilding of Iraq, a continuation of the war on terrorism and the Athens Olympics.

In the past few years, CNN has fallen behind Fox News (FOX: news, chart, profile) in the widely followed TV ratings. CNN long held an advantage over its competitors when big stories broke. But even during the Iraqi war last spring, Fox led in the ratings, underscoring CNN's decline in popularity among American TV viewers.

Hair said the company was making changes because it wanted to "increase the degree to which newsgathering and programming are fully integrated. Nowhere is this integration more important than in our DC bureau."

Hair cited Bohrman's "passion for the news and skill as a producer."

CNN's Washington bureau is one of the network's ornaments. Its reporters, led by the White House correspondents John King, Dana Bash and Suzanne Malveaux and the national security reporter David Ensor and Justice Dept. correspondent Kelli Arena, are widely respected.

But CNN has been hurt by defections of some of its on-air correspondents.

In addition, CNN is changing its chiefs' responsibilities in its 11 domestic bureaus, saying the current system of having bureau chiefs in some cases double as reporters "does not fully make sense."

In most cases, "reporters will no longer be domestic bureau chiefs," he said. He will assign full time administrators to be the bureau managers.

In addition, the U.S. will be divided into four regions, Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, West as well as Washington, DC. Each segment will be managed by a regional bureau chief and a supervising producer will manage daily activities in the outlying bureaus, Hair said.

Boston and New York will make up the Northeast region and will be managed by Karen Curry in New York, Hair said.

Atlanta and Miami will encompass the Southeast and be supervised by MaryLynn Ryan in Atlanta. CNN has expanded the Chicago and Dallas bureaus and added Denver to comprise the Midwest region, which will be led by Edith Chapin in Chicago. Los Angeles bureau chief Pete Janos will direct the Western region, including Seattle and San Francisco.

Jon Friedman is media editor for CBS.MarketWatch.com in New York.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cablenewsnetwork; chickennoodlenews; cnn; cnnschadenfreude; princellhair; schadenfreude
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To: Common Tator
Nobody is more interested in what Aaron Brown has to say than Aaron Brown; and he also thinks that what he has to say about the news is more important than the news.
21 posted on 01/23/2004 8:27:05 PM PST by Howlin
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To: Common Tator
Rush made a point the other day that I hadn't thought about ,as he often does, the picture is just crisper and better on Fox News.CNN and MSNBC don't have the crispness of picture.I'll watch Scarborough and Hardball(I have a crush on Peggy Noonan!) long enough to get sick of looking at a bad picture,then it goes back to Fox News.
22 posted on 01/23/2004 8:29:16 PM PST by rewrite
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To: Pikamax
These are folks without the slightest clue. They genuinely do not see their repulsive biases.
23 posted on 01/23/2004 8:32:09 PM PST by FormerACLUmember (Man rises to greatness if greatness is expected of him)
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To: Pikamax
They might want to get somebody with a name other than Princell Hair. It's hard to take somebody by that name seriously.
24 posted on 01/23/2004 8:35:56 PM PST by Contra
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To: Pikamax
Just don't get rid of Rudi Bahktiar . . . easy on the eyes
25 posted on 01/23/2004 8:38:42 PM PST by laweeks (I)
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To: martin_fierro
There were huge budget problems when Fox news was started.

Roger Ailes had a problem They had no audience yet and most cable systems would not put them on. CNN is paid by every cable system they are on, 25 cents for every subsriber. It matters not if they actually view CNN. CNN gets paid 25 cents a month for every cable subscriber that that can get their channel.

To get on the systems Fox had to agree to be paid nothing for 10 years. So the parent companys had to pay the entire costs until they had enough audience to generate advertising revenues.

Female newscasters are plentyful and they don't get paid as much as men. So Ailes hired females to deliver the news. He hired pretty ones over ugly ones, hoping channel hopping males would stay to watch his news babes.

Babes are cheap and attract the attention of channel flippers.. that is the story. Now everone does it.

26 posted on 01/23/2004 8:44:35 PM PST by Common Tator
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To: big ern
I believe the next line includes the phrase, "... let the *^%$*&^@#$er burn."


Burn baby burn!

27 posted on 01/23/2004 8:52:27 PM PST by BigSkyFreeper (All Our Base Are Belong To Dubya)
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To: Common Tator
You in news anywhere now, Tator?
28 posted on 01/23/2004 8:53:40 PM PST by Timesink (Two fonts walk into a bar. The bartender says, "We don't serve your type here.")
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To: Common Tator

Sure wish this mush would make up his mind whether he's male or female.

29 posted on 01/23/2004 8:54:38 PM PST by martin_fierro (Uneasy in my easy chair)
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To: rewrite
Rush made a point the other day that I hadn't thought about ,as he often does, the picture is just crisper and better on Fox News.CNN and MSNBC don't have the crispness of picture.I'll watch Scarborough and Hardball(I have a crush on Peggy Noonan!) long enough to get sick of looking at a bad picture,then it goes back to Fox News.

I remember Don Imus talking about some sort of technology that has been around for a long time that is built into the studio setup that smudges skin tones, which Imus said, "...makes wrinkled old bastards look younger". Bernie and I believe MSNBC turns it off during his program. LOL

30 posted on 01/23/2004 8:57:37 PM PST by BigSkyFreeper (All Our Base Are Belong To Dubya)
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To: Pikamax
Princell Hair

With a name like that, I bet he got his ass kicked on the playground alot.

31 posted on 01/23/2004 9:01:39 PM PST by BigSkyFreeper (All Our Base Are Belong To Dubya)
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To: Common Tator
I used to tell my programmers that if I ever tune in and personally like what you are programming, you are just one notch away from being fired.

You should see how much time the "professionals" spend on the various news industry web sites, lavishing embarrassing amounts of praise on Keith Olbermann's show. They absolutely worship it, yet it's the lowest-rated prime time show on all three news channels. And your numbers have to really SUCK to earn bottom place.

32 posted on 01/23/2004 9:02:23 PM PST by Timesink (Two fonts walk into a bar. The bartender says, "We don't serve your type here.")
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To: Common Tator
Interestingly enough, when CNN *DOES* figure it out, various and sundry leftists will use it and Fox as examples that "the media is Conservative" and that the liberal media is an invention of the VRWC.

BTW I don't consider Fox News remotely close to conservative. They just don't lie blatantly and intentionally to promote a political agenda as does CNN. If they want to consider relatively unbiased and truthful news reporting as conservative... that's fine by me. :)
33 posted on 01/23/2004 9:08:55 PM PST by adam_az
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To: BigSkyFreeper
I remember Don Imus talking about some sort of technology that has been around for a long time that is built into the studio setup that smudges skin tones, which Imus said, "...makes wrinkled old bastards look younger". Bernie and I believe MSNBC turns it off during his program. LOL

You mean soft focus? That's been around forever. It's literally just a slight blurring of the image to take the edge off. (Unfortunately, it tends to make everything else in the picture look like some gauzy fabric has been draped over the camera lens. Of course, contemporary digital technology helps make it less noticeable.) If you want to see it in action, watch ANYTHING anchored by Barbara Walters.

34 posted on 01/23/2004 9:10:05 PM PST by Timesink (Two fonts walk into a bar. The bartender says, "We don't serve your type here.")
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To: Timesink
CNN was threatened to be dropped off the channel lineup of DISH Network. I was watching the CEO of Echostar, Charlie Ergen, explain that CNN has dismal ratings, no one watches them, and they bear the burden of paying for a channel no one watches. It may have been an idea tossed out there, but I know Charlie Ergen really cares about all of us DISH Network customers by giving them the kind of channels they want at a fair price.
35 posted on 01/23/2004 9:12:06 PM PST by BigSkyFreeper (All Our Base Are Belong To Dubya)
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To: Timesink
You mean soft focus?

Thanks for jarring my memory, thats what I was thinking of. It's been a decade since I been in television. Mostly doing radio these days.

36 posted on 01/23/2004 9:13:26 PM PST by BigSkyFreeper (All Our Base Are Belong To Dubya)
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To: adam_az
Personally, it doesn't bother me if they say FOX News is the VRWC of media. FOX consistantly has been kicking ass ratings-wise. :)

Liberals despise success and want to tear it down.

37 posted on 01/23/2004 9:16:19 PM PST by BigSkyFreeper (All Our Base Are Belong To Dubya)
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To: Timesink
If you want to see it in action, watch ANYTHING anchored by Barbara Walters.

I remember it used back when Hugh Downs and Barbara hosted 20/20, and it's very noticeable on her "private and intimate" interview shows.

38 posted on 01/23/2004 9:18:28 PM PST by BigSkyFreeper (All Our Base Are Belong To Dubya)
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To: rewrite
Yes, also notice even when they broadcast the same speech and camera as CNN and MSNBC, on Fox, the colors are always brighter and the picture is crisper.

Fox has video guys with racks of real time gear to tune and sweeten the image. Their audio is also better produced than CNN's.

They got a new makeup artist recently, too.

Also, I think Susan Esterich got some plastic surgery! anyone else notice that?
39 posted on 01/23/2004 9:18:37 PM PST by adam_az
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To: Howlin
Nobody is more interested in what Aaron Brown has to say than Aaron Brown

AND Larry King who introduces Aaron as if he was the second coming. They must be related as there's no plausible reason for Larry's nightly gushing.

40 posted on 01/23/2004 9:23:29 PM PST by StarFan
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