In the oughts, CBS is paying their anchorette $2.51...to reach a single viewer.
Times have, indeed, changed.
What cracks me up is that I’ve now seen the complete 360.
In the seventies, there was an ongoing battle because the entertainment division wanted to take over the news department, arguing that they could get better ratings if they used ‘modern programming techniques’. CBS management in those days said the news department would always remain independent because it was a part of the institution, and fulfilled the network’s committment to provide public service. Making money with it, they said, wasn’t what it was there for.
Fifteen years later, the ‘independent institution’ was turned over to the programming department, with their seventies argument articulated as the reason.
Now, with the flaws of having news programming managed by entertainment people clearly evident, management is once again talking about how ratings are unimportant, it’s the institution that counts.
Pretty darn funny.