Posted on 10/26/2006 6:50:57 AM PDT by abb
Posted on Thu, Oct. 26, 2006
Gail Shister | The pros sound off on impact of NBC cuts
By Gail Shister Inquirer Columnist
NBC News can slash its budget many ways, but don't ask anchors and correspondents to give up the Benjamins, advises ex-CBS News chief Andrew Heyward.
"It's very bad for morale. People take it very personally. When you actually pay somebody less, it tends to have a disproportionate psychological impact on the employee, in my experience."
NBC News bossSteve Capus said this week that if enough on-air types took salary cuts at contract time, it could save jobs. NBC Universal plans to slash expenses by $750 million and cut 700 positions.
Heyward weathered CBS cuts in the late '90s by "carefully and surgically" reorganizing his newsgathering infrastructure. "Not a single correspondent was let go."
Maybe so, but Heyward and his deputies did look into reducing on-air salaries before vetoing the idea, he says.
"They're too difficult to execute, even though in theory it's a good solution. Over time, you can flatten out salaries in terms of raises, and you can certainly readjust them when somebody changes assignments dramatically."
Heyward wants it made clear that he's no expert about the situation at NBC, and that he feels Capus' pain.
"Obviously, layoffs are bad for morale, too," Heyward says. Eliminating jobs "is a painful, difficult process. It was for us."
Like Capus, however, Heyward says it's possible to see the glass as half full. NBC can maintain the integrity of its news operation even after serious cuts.
No way, says respected NBC alum Marvin Kalb.
"If it doesn't affect the quality of the product, Steve Capus will be a miracle man," says Kalb, Washington-based senior fellow for Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
Kalb was NBC's chief diplomatic correspondent and moderator of Meet the Press during his 1980-87 tenure. MSNBC didn't exist yet, so his primary reporting responsibility was to NBC Nightly News.
These days, of course, NBC saves money by having correspondents do separate stories for Nightly, Today, MSNBC and MSNBC.com. With that heavy a load, quality inevitably suffers, according to Kalb.
"You're not going to sleep at all. If you're doing a piece for Nightly, that's an all-consuming part of the day, if you're going to do it with absolute care, double checking, and a little class in the writing."
Bill McLaughlin, a professor of journalism at Quinnipiac University and 25-year correspondent at CBS and NBC, agrees.
"Of course it will affect the integrity of the news," he says. "NBC is already cut to the bone. The cuts will be painful. They will weaken NBC."
Not necessarily, says network-news analyst Andrew Tyndall. Every year, technology costs go down, he says, with cameras getting more lightweight and satellite costs declining.
"Technology will bail them out," he says. "Productivity gains from using the most modern technology."
McLaughlin labels the NBC Universal-mandated cutbacks at NBC News as "cowardly. NBC is the best place right now for news coverage because it's able to amortize its correspondents over MSNBC and CNBC."
At NBC, as well as other networks, McLaughlin predicts that cutbacks will result in fewer correspondents covering stories, particularly overseas, and the increased use of outside sources and freelancers.
"All the networks are running scared," he says. "They've never figured out a way to not use people to cover the news. You need bodies.... The incompetence is amazing."
After the election Nov. 7, expect to see a round of cutbacks "all over the place," McLaughlin says.
Earplug alert. Comcast SportsNet's Eagles Post Game Live will jack up the decibels Sunday.
Homeboy Jim Cramer, the screaming "I'M ON THE VERGE OF A STROKE!" host of CNBC's hit Mad Money, will join Michael Barkann, Vaughn Hebron and Ray Didinger on the panel.
A lifelong Eagles fan, Cramer even hawked drinks at the Vet as a lad so he could watch games. Now based in New York, he's been a season-ticket holder since the Linc opened in '04.
Eagles Post Game Live had been trying for a while to land Cramer for a story, says a SportsNet rep. Last week, someone suggested the frenetic Wall Street analyst as a guest panelist, she says.
Post Game Live will air about 4 p.m., following the Eagles-Jacksonville game at the Linc.
"My friends say I take it too seriously, and have to be anesthetized after losses like the Giants and the Saints," Cramer says in a statement.
"But I will be as 'impartial' as Merrill Reese when I get in that booth! Ha!!!"
Gov. Rendell, absent this season while on the campaign trail, will return Nov. 12 as "the voice of the fan," the rep says. Hizzoner has been with the show since its '97 launch.
Short stuff. Not neurotic enough? All eight episodes of Showtime's forthcoming season of Sleeper Cell: American Terror will be shown Dec. 10 on Showtime on Demand. The mini-series will also run on the linear Showtime network Dec. 10 through 17 at 9 each night... . CBS has ordered four more scripts for The Class, its new Monday sitcom from Bala-born David Crane and his life partner, Jeffrey Klarik. Contact TV columnist Gail Shister at 215-854-2224 or gshister@phillynews.com. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/ gailshister.
Within two years, network news as we know it today will cease to exist...
Ping
but don't ask anchors and correspondents to give up the Benjamins...
or the Monica's
My heart bleeds. Don't dare ask the mutimillion dollar anchors to take a cut to keep their job. It reminds me of the union workers who will strike for 3 months to get a dollar an hour raise. It'll take 3 years to break even on the wages they lost while striking. They would rather close the business than stay at their current pay. Demand higher wages than the company can afford. Force them out of business. Then bitch about being unemployed. Brilliant!
From a pure PR standpoint, if Brian Williams, who makes $10 mill/year, I believe, announced that he was voluntarily taking a 20% pay cut..well, he'd be a God inside NBC..encourage/force others to do the same, and the network suits could make him whole by giving him increased perks..
Hey, if it's too tough on them to file too may stories, they should quit and go somewhere else, or do something else for a living. There's no law that says they have to network correspondents.
As for the anchors: They are megalomaniacs. Trust me.
I've come to the conclusion everyone in network news could work for free - actually donate their labor - and it would make no difference. People would still not watch the network news. And without the eyeballs, they won't have advertisers. Without advertisers, they won't have revenue.
First thing I learned when I got into sales 20 years ago - if you can't sell it, there's no need at all of making it...
If they had fired Dan Rather 5, 10, 15 years ago and replaced him with someone at one-fifth his salary, CBS would not be in 7th place in LA.
There was a movie about this some years ago. Jack Nicholson was the "anchor."
I'm thinking this needs to be the bumper music for all three network newscasts...
http://vrps.org/sounds/TitanicSos.mp3
Wow. That's haunting.
Was Titanics's call sign "mgdm?"
How could they have recorded this in 1912?
"Broadcast News" 1987. That film included staff cuts at the Washington bureau of the fictional network in the movie.
The nets have been cutting ever since then.
Their call sign was MGY. That wav is a recreation.
http://www.vrps.org/Vintage/titanic.html
Thank you. I couldn't remember the title but remember Nicholson's reaction when someone suggested he take a small cut to save newsroom jobs. Think Brian Williams' face is twisted ?
Gee, I've seen no polls asking if the viewing audience would support salary cuts/layoffs for MSM anchors/journalists.
Thanks abb.
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.