Cuts at TV-News Divisions Signal Leaner Approach (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | February 26, 2010 | Sam Schechner

[abb]

Staff cuts at two of the biggest broadcast-television news outfits in the U.S. foreshadow a shift toward cheaper TV news gathering, as broadcast-news groups face shrinking profits and increasing competition from cable and the Internet.

ABC News, a division of Walt Disney Co., said this week it would embark on a "fundamental transformation" of its operations, a move that could cut as much as a quarter of its news staff of approximately 1,500, according a person familiar with the matter.

The move comes three weeks after CBS Corp.'s news division began to shed more than 6% of its staff of roughly 1,400 and just over three years after General Electric Co.'s NBC News began rounds of stiff cuts.

The shift raises the question of how long news organizations can continue to do more with less. "This is more, done differently," said David Westin, president of ABC News. "I'm finding out, 'Can we thrive in this new world?' "

A centerpiece of ABC's plan is to rely more extensively on a new breed of TV journalist who can produce stories using new, digital equipment alone or with much smaller teams. In TV newsrooms, a person who can do the job of both a producer and an editor is sometimes called a "predator."

For decades, network-news divisions were almost the only source of images from the day's events. Anchors like Walter Cronkite were fixtures in tens of millions of American homes. But since the 1980s, broadcasters faced pressure to deliver consistent profit. And now they compete with a geyser of Internet updates as well as nonstop coverage from three, major 24-hour cable-news networks.

snip

[abb]

"By the end of this decade or shortly thereafter, television networks as we know them today will cease to exist. They will be just another url on the world wide web competing against millions of others."

"Network evening newscasts will go dark after the '08 elections and their news divisions disbanded."

Walter Abbott, (b. 1950), Media observer, blogger and commentator

[abb]

ping

[Hardastarboard]

how long news organizations can continue to do more with less. "This is more, done differently," said David Westin, president of ABC News. "I'm finding out, 'Can we thrive in this new world?' "

Frankly, I hope you can't do much no matter how many resources you throw at it. You @$$holes are responsible in a huge way for this country's slide into the absolute hell of socialism, and the waste of trillions of dollars of taxpayer money on social and environmental engineering.

As I've posted before, how many people does it really take to read or cut and paste DNC faxes and emails? If I had my way, all the major players in the MSM, print and electronic, would be eating out of dumpsters.

[abb]

http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/more_network_news_employees_ou.php
More Network News Employees Out of the Picture

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20100226_Sign_of_the_times.html
Honolulu Star-Bulletin agreed to buy its longtime rival The Honolulu Advertiser.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100226/NEWS01/2260395/News+left+workers+shocked++confused
News left workers shocked, confused

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100226/NEWS01/2260399/1352
Black undeterred by challenging Isle market

http://www.johntemple.net/2010/02/one-year-later-theres-life-after-death.html
One year later, there’s life after death

http://www.thebigmoney.com/blogs/goodnight-gutenberg/2010/02/24/abc-news-cuts-good-print-outlets?page=full
Why the ABC News Cuts Are Great for Print

http://allday.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/02/24/2211057.aspx
Journalism ‘An Act of Faith,’ Ann writes

http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/bulletin-gannett-sells-honolulu_25.html
Bulletin: GCI inks deal to sell Honolulu Advertiser to rival publisher; regulatory approval uncertain

[GeronL]

ABC NEWS has 6000 employees???

Say what?

[abb]

1,500. The cuts are 300 to 400.

[GeronL]

lol.

It still too many people. Its not like they do 24-7 news or anything.

[Buckeye McFrog]

a Leaner Approach?

Guess what Katie, Les just signed you up for Jenny Craig, whether you like it or not! (had to lay off the Airbrush man, dontcha know...)

[abb]

A Tower in Babel: A History of Broadcasting in the United States, Volume I – to 1933
Erick Barnouw
Oxford University Press, New York, 1966

GHOSTS

Pgs 253-255

Did it all make sense? Why did the Department of Justice, after years of off-again-on-again hearings by various agencies, launch this suit in depth of an economic slump? To many in the broadcasting industry, intent on other interests, the development was completely baffling. IN Washington reasons seemed clearer. To those with the memories or a taste for history, the answer was clear enough. In the annals of communication, monopoly had long been held as one of the most corrupting of influences.

In the decades after the Civil War the Western Union Company, by buying, swallowing, or crushing smaller companies, achieved a monopoly position. By 1873 its wires reached into thirty-seven states and nine territories and comprise the only nation-wide web. It was a key to wealth and power in many ways. Representative Charles A. Sumner of California charged in 1875 that sudden changes in market prices were repeatedly withheld from San Francisco until insiders made a killing. Control of the flow of information netted vaster fortunes than the profits from telegraph service; and this, monopoly-prices, made fortunes by itself.

To break the monopoly power by creating an alternative channel, bills for a government telegraph service linking the nations post offices were introduced in Congress in 1869, 1870, 1872, 1874, 1875, 1881, 1890. But Western Union could muster crushing opposition. It worked in close alliance with the old Associated Press, which used only Western Union. Newspapers aspiring to national or international coverage lived at the mercy of these allies. Newspapers, backing postal telegraph proposals found their rates raised or service ended. Publishers, editors, reporters knew this topic was out of bounds.

Press control was matched in importance by other persuasive pressures. Congressmen, as well as state legislators, receive franks – free telegraph privileges – in apparently unlimited quantity. A Western Union official wrote to a New York politician shortly before a convention:

Dear Mr. _______:

I enclose another book of franks, of which I have extended the limits to cover all Western Union lines.
I hope they may be able to help you make a good nomination. Please use them freely on political messages, and telegraph me when you want a fresh supply.

The company was equally generous with both major political parties: it took no undue risks. The company’s affairs and prosperity, President Orton of Western Union informed his board of directors in 1873, were subject to government action at all levels, and the franks had saved revenue “many times the money value of the free service.”

The power exercised by Western Union was used with increasing ruthlessness when it came under control of Jay Gould. In the 1880’s the fury aroused by Gould’s machinations – via his hold over railroads, telegraph, press, politicians – found vent in song:

We’ll hand Jay Gould on a sour apple tree
And bring to grief the plotters of a base monopoly!

After 1885, the growth of the AT&T web of wires ended Western Union’s monopoly position and even permitted the rise of Postal Telegraph, a private company choosing a name that had become a sort of freedom banner. And the rise of United Press began to limit the power of the Associated Press.

(The author cites the following reference: Old Wires and New Waves The History of the Telegraph, Telephone and Wireless - By Alvin F. Harlow, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1936)

[rosco coltrain]

ABC does news???.. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of that just left wing propaganda like NBC.

[Texas resident]

ABC says they are going to undergo a “fundamental transformation”. Where did we here that before.
Hey ABC, your chosen one is really helping you out there.
Didn’t ABC do a free promotion of ozero death care plan?
Your boy is loyal to himself only and you all are just his usefull idiots.

[abb]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR2010022505730.html
Iraqi journalist sees threats to press freedom

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0210/Obama_campaign_arm_focuses_on_talk_radio.html
Obama campaign arm focuses on talk radio

http://www.journalism.org/index_report/%E2%80%9Cclimategate%E2%80%9D_reignites_blogosphere_debate
“Climate-gate” Re-ignites the Blogosphere Debate

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-leno26-2010feb26,0,7938001.story
‘The Tonight Show’ still has to worry about tomorrow

http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2010/02/22/daily38.html
Star-Bulletin’s Black will buy Advertiser

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=142302
Journal’s New York Section Gunning for Times Advertisers

http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15578052
The emperor’s clothes

http://www.newser.com/off-the-grid/post/407/heres-what-the-murdochs-are-talking-about-today.html
Here’s What the Murdochs Are Talking About Today

[ken5050]

There was an excellent piece a week or so ago about the ridiculous attempts of NBC to delay showing many Olympic events until prime time, in order to maximize profits...though they are posting the results. Obviously, in this age of instant info, the results are immediately available, though as exclusive rights owner, NBS can embargo the video until it chooses. This is probably the last Olympics where they can pull that off..it probably means that the price of Olympic rights is far to high...and confirms the dictum that information...which included video..longs to be free...

[abb]

Check out post #9. Just read that last night and it’s very interesting. Western Union handed out franking privileges to politicians to curry favor.

And we thought it started with ABCCBSNBCCNNNYTimesLATimes...

[abb]

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/gstorch/201002/1826/
The pros and cons of newspapers partnering with ‘citizen journalism’ networks

http://www.buzzmachine.com/
Operational transparency

http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/
BBC May Cut U.S. Imports Budget By 33%

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=123251
Olympics Grabs More 55+ Viewers, Drop In Key Demos

http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/honolulu-how-layoffs-and-asset-sales.html
Honolulu | How layoffs, asset sales are the same

http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/iceland-update-media-freedom-bill-advances/
Iceland update: Media freedom bill advances