Posted on 09/07/2010 1:08:58 PM PDT by OldDeckHand
As part of the deep cuts announced this week at ABC News, the network plans to close all of its physical bureaus around the country except Washington and halve the number of its domestic correspondents.
ABC News President David Westin confirmed in an interview Friday that the network's ranks of bureau correspondents, which currently number several dozen, would be cut in half and be replaced with "digital" journalists who would be expected to shoot and edit their own stories.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
They're able to keep the DC operation because DC has a large concentration of press-release writing hacks, mostly from the DNC, the rest from left-leaning advocacy organizations and law firms, who will continue to write broadcast-ready copy for them free of charge.
In a Banana Republic the only news you need to cover happens in the Capital City. Everything is decided there and the daily news always leads with..”Today Pres Obama, signed, said, decreed, spoke whatever..” All the news is press releases from the Gov.
Imagine if ABC had actually aggressively looked into Obama’s background back in 2008... Imagine if they had covered the Tea Parties fairly like Fox did... Imagine if they had hounded the Democrats during the Healthcare debate about WHY they were pushing something the American people DID NOT WANT! but it's too late now, they were more worried about pushing their socialist agenda then their jobs.
they could be expanding their news division now instead of cutting it
So how’s that “hope and change” working out for you at Another Barack Channel (ABC)?
What’s ABC News?
Yeah, but if they had done that they would have been utterly cut off, frozen out, from nearly all the sources they've developed over the years. They don't have any real reporters any more (they never had more than one at a time anyway, Brit Hume and one or two others who's names escape me are the only ones I can think of) and they'd be starting from scratch. Not only that, but NBC, CBS, and CNN would have turned on them in a heartbeat, characterizing them as a FOX-wannabe.
Even worse, no more parties, no more retreats, no more club memberships, and absolutely no chance of being hired into cushy jobs in the administration or the congressional staffs.
That would have been personal career suicide for individuals. This way, it's just organizational suicide.
Though this thread and posts are particularly delicious, all Freeper posts on Dinosaur Media Death Watch threads are pure nectar. Thank you!
It is somewhat ironic that one of the many media to complain about the inaccuracy and ignorance of the unqualified blog-o-sphere and pajama’s media is now saying that its unused staff of reporters is of so little use that independent bloggers will now replace them.
Talk about crafting the news...
I always thought they used stock footage. Seen one fire seen'em all. I guess...
Jimmy? Jimmy, it's ABC on the phone. Quit playing World of Warcraft, take a shower and report on what the Tea Party is doing locally. It's a good minimum wage job and that's more than you make doing your Lady Gaga impressions on Youtube.
Maybe the experienced ones can get head mounted satellite dishes, like Al Franken had when he was almost funny.
I'm not sure if FNC would be interested in such a deal, even if they were presented with the opportunity as they already have their own broadcast relationships established with their affiliates.
And, if they were interested, it probably wouldn't survive anti-trade review by Justice. The laws that govern broadcast licenses are pretty restrictive with respect to what business relationships may be entered into with competitors. Since Fox and ABC both own broadcast networks (and Fox also with their cable network), it may not be legally possible to create any kind of alliance or partnership between the two.
There have been negotiations between CNN and CBS, but in that relationship, only CBS owns a broadcast network. CNN and its parent company Time/Warner are all cable.
Probably not. Yes, it makes us feel better saying it, but the problems are more demographic-related than "news quality" related.
Young people - people generally under the age of 35, don't watch news. They didn't stop watching because of objectivity, or the lack thereof, but because of technology. They consume their news much differently than previous generations. That's why the average age of the network news viewer (and network television generally speaking) is well into the 50s.
Even still, NBC makes money hand-over-fist with the NBC Nightly News broadcast as well as the Today Show which remains a cash-cow for the network. They make money because they have a cable division that helps offset operational costs. ABC and CBS don't.
Also, while FNC does enjoy MUCH better ratings, they only marginally enjoy better ad revenues than MSNBC and CNN, and it was only recently that they surpassed MSNBC and CNN on ad revenues. Why? Because FNC skews older than both MSNBC and CNN and advertisers will pay a premium for a specific kind of demographic, and that's not FNC's primary demographic.
FNC does make MUCH more money than CNN and MSNBC (with only marginally better revenues), it's primarily because FNC doesn't have the infrastructure that both CNN and MSNBC enjoy. FNC operates at a fraction of the cost of both their competitors. So, they get to keep much more of the revenue they generate. Simple accounting.
I don’t see a problem here. All you need for a nightly service for a network is four decent writers, a guy to buy the video from independent sources, and some guy to just read the news as the network determines the “feel” for what gets reported. I figured I could do this for $500k a year. Fire everyone else. I don’t even need to be in NY City...we could do this in Dayton, Ohio.
Who says the news media never reports happy stories?
What a shame.</sarc>
Cut 50%-—well, in my opinion they always were half a$$ed anyway.. Good enough
remember Max Headroom?
the camera man was the mobile news outfit.
If you are an ABC reporter scheduled for layoff, don’t worry. Oprah has announced her new network that airs in January. Maybe you can find a job there...the OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) might be hiring liars.
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