Princell Hair
Posted on 09/18/2003 8:22:34 PM PDT by mhking
Princell Hair has bounded through 10 local news jobs in his still-young TV career.
His newest one poses the biggest challenge yet: revive CNN's ratings and earn his stripes as the leader of a national news operation.
He starts next month as chief of CNN's U.S. programming and newsgathering, as part of a shake-up announced this week.
People who know Hair, 36, describe him as a quiet leader and an ambitious newsman. Hair has spent his career so far in local news, moving from producer to news director to the corporate ranks of Viacom, where he has overseen news for 39 stations.
He has crisscrossed the country -- from Florida to Illinois to Maryland to California.
"He has prepared his life to become a big player," said Al Tompkins, a television news veteran who teaches at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., where Hair has lectured. "He has scrapped his way around big markets."
Atlanta-based CNN has been losing a ratings war to Fox News for a year and a half.
Jim Walton, president of CNN News Group, reorganized the company this week, ousting Walton's predecessor, Teya Ryan, and shuffling other executives. The goal, he said, is to get viewers to watch longer to improve ratings.
So far in September, average viewership on CNN is 438,000, down 14 percent from last year. Fox News is getting an average of 716,000 viewers, up 11 percent from last year.
Hair, who was in California on Wednesday, was unavailable for an interview.
Some controversy
His career has not been without controversy. Hair has been closely aligned with Joel Cheatwood, a local news veteran known for his tabloid style, which he demonstrated at WSVN in Miami, where Hair also worked.
The two also worked together in Chicago at WMAQ, an NBC affiliate. While they were there in the late '90s, the station hired Jerry Springer to do a segment on the evening news, sparking a revolt in the newsroom that got national attention. Two well-known anchors left and ratings plunged.
When asked earlier this week about the fiasco, Hair, who was the news director in Chicago at the time, distanced himself from it.
"The only thing I can really say on that is that it was in the works long before I got there, and it was presented to me as a fait accompli," he told The Chicago Tribune. Asked whether he agreed with the decision to hire Springer, he said, "I can't really get into that because I'm legally bound not to get into it."
No matter who was behind the Springer move, resentment toward both Hair and Cheatwood lingered at the station, according to Phil Rogers, a reporter at the station for 13 years.
"He was brought here during a very tumultuous time at Channel 5," Rogers said. "He was a nice enough man, but we always perceived his role as an assistant to Joel Cheatwood in the administration of a style of news we were not entirely in agreement with."
Rogers said Hair had a hands-off management style. "He spent a lot of time in his office, and none of us ever had a lot of contact with him."
After a couple of years, Hair left the station, moving to Baltimore, where he worked at WBAL for three years.
"Princell is his own man," said Bill Fine, general manager of the station. "Cheatwood is someone who brought him along in the business. Princell would not make decisions based on, 'What would Joel do?' "
Applicable skills
Though Hair did the often-criticized local stories like car chases, Fine said he also was interested in investigative pieces.
This week, during a conference call with reporters, Hair said he understands CNN is different from local news. However, he said his skills from previous jobs are also applicable in the new arena.
Former co-workers and associates describe Hair as reserved and measured.
"When a situation required him to take charge, he did, but again in a quiet way," Fine said. "He is not a screamer."
Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, where Hair is on the board, said that Hair doesn't speak often, but when he does, he is clear.
"He commands respect," she said.
Though the local news may be more blood-and-guts than CNN's style, David Hazinski, a journalism professor at University of Georgia, said Hair's appointment makes sense.
"CNN needs that energy, that spark, that pay-attention-to-me-so-I-can-tell-you-something quality," said Hazinski, who has never met Hair. "Local news has been able to do that fairly well."
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Deja vu all over again.
Nope. Never met 'im. I do know he's the asshat that hired Jerry Springer to do commentary for WMAQ-TV (NBC5) in Chicago in the late 90s, which ended up with their two lead anchors quitting in disgust.
I'm sure he'll make some equally brain-dead moves once he gets here to Atlanta.
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