CNN shakes up news administration

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

But also Fox uses not just attractive women, but the men are tough as nails -- the brawniest newsmen (as in their questioning) -- just how many liberals are scared of being taken to the cleaners by Brian Kilmeade, just a little sports guy, and his tenacity? Watching the mornings with Fox & Friends sometimes makes me wonder how many laptops are on that desk on a typical morning.

Rita Cosby may not be as attractive as the news readers, but her job assignment is different, and she is one of a few Fox anchors who have clothing deals. Some of the female anchors, however, on Fox have to watch what they wear. Some of it is too immodest for business.

Or wonder about Shepard Smith -- many Americans heard his name from the 2000 recounts when he pulled no punches and took no prisoners for a parking spot. Is CNN attempting to copy Smith's hard-nosed style? I don't think they can because Shep is too unique to be anything but Shep. He can be in-your-face in terror-bashing, enemy-bashing, or even thug-bashing (witness his blow-by-blow of Hot Pursuits), but he understands the family man knows who's the bad guy, and to tell it like it is makes sense.

There are so many features of Fox that CNN might try to copy, but won't work. The different graphics for each "major" headline has become a hot button topic -- whether it's Kobe, Michael, Scott, Martha, War on Terror, Hunt for Usama, or others, they know why the grahpics are used. "War on Terror" was a big one Fox used shortly after Usama's Attacks and each time I see it I know Fox is discussing the nastiness of UBL and what's next.

Too many of Fox's men are tough.

Watching Stuart Varney pummel Beckel one week and then the Kerry campaign advisor Saturday was a hoot. He called Kerry an appeaser and used things such as the Madrid Blasts to prove his point. It seems all the Fox financial show people are for the most part understanding of what UBL is and how he affects our economy.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.