Network News at a Crossroads (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

The New York Times ^ | February 28, 2010 | Brian Stelter and Bill Carter

[abb]

ABC News is making no secret about what is behind the sweeping staff cuts it now faces: raw survival instinct.

“I just looked out at the next five years and was concerned that we could not sustain doing what we were doing,” said David Westin, the president of ABC News, as he explained the decision last week to jettison up to 400 staff members, a quarter of the news staff, in the coming months.

The same compelling motive already instigated strategic retrenchment at ABC’s broadcast competitors. NBC, the one network with a cable news channel, MSNBC — and, not coincidentally, the only network in a sound position of profitability — has drastically pared down its operations over the last few years. So has CBS, which is losing money already and has cut about 70 jobs this year.

But with news available more places than ever, on cable channels and Internet sites, and with revenue challenged by heavy dependence on shrinking advertising dollars, the future for the news divisions at ABC and CBS remains deeply insecure.

“Long term, it’s going to get harder for these guys to exist as they are currently constructed, with the exception of NBC because it can offload the costs on MSNBC,” Michael Nathanson, an industry analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, said.

The economic problems facing ABC News and CBS News in many ways mirror those faced by newspapers, which have been similarly afflicted by a drop in advertising revenue. The reaction — severe cuts in personnel and other costs — also looks to be the same.

But can you shrink your way to prosperity? Andrew Heyward said of the ABC cuts: “The real issue after this is what will drive growth? How do you generate more profit? And this doesn’t address that.”

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

[bmwcyle]

Lies just don’t work well.

[abb]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703940704575090120113003314.html
Magazines Team Up to Tout ‘Power of Print’

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704089904575094011040177060.html
Quarter of Americans Get News on Cellphones

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-digital-journo1-2010mar01,0,1378757.story
ABC News sees a digital future

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/02/actors-unions-move-toward-joint-bargaining-agreement.html
Actors unions move toward joint bargaining agreement

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/02/abc-news-to-cut-half-its-domestic-correspondents-shut-down-all-bureaus-except-washington.html
ABC News to cut half its domestic correspondents, close bricks-and-mortar bureaus [Updated]

[DaveArk]

...afflicted by a drop in advertising revenue.

...How do you generate more profit?

Which came first the audience or the advertising revenues?

Try giving the audience what they want (facts,truth), not what you think they want. :)

[abb]

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Online-News.aspx
Understanding the Participatory News Consumer

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=142332
Web Publishers Left With Little After Middlemen Split Ad Spoils

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=142330
Leno’s Triumphant Return to Late Night May No Longer Matter

[abb]

I’m just about finished with the first of a three volume history of broadcasting.

http://www.amazon.com/History-Broadcasting-United-States-Babel/dp/0195004744
A History of Broadcasting in the United States: Volume 1: A Tower of Babel. To 1933 (Vol 1)
Erik Barnouw (Author)

It deals extensively on how broadcast advertising came to be and its evolution. Very informative.

Broadcast advertising was originated by AT&T and called “toll broadcasting.”

http://earlyradiohistory.us/sec020.htm
Financing Radio Broadcasting (1898-1927)

[singletrack]

” NBC, the one network with a cable news channel, MSNBC “

Wow,I thought Fox was a network with a news channel, hows Fox News doing anyway?

[sergeantdave]

Propaganda is popular only with the propagandists, the liars they flatter and their dogs.

[F15Eagle]

The MSM bet the farm on Obama and acted, and continue to act, as propaganda agents.

The Fourth Estate acts like a Fifth Column to quote someone.

Their contribution to the demise of the nation is remarkable.

[OrioleFan]

"I just looked out at the next five years and was concerned that we could not sustain doing what we were doing," said David Westin, the president of ABC News

Providing cover and free propoganda for Democrats and Socialists...

[Zakeet]

You laid-off Nitwork Newsers should do what I did when I got sacked ... find another way to contribute to society in a meaningful way as a self appointed libtard expert in everything.

Courage.

[DaveArk]

Their discussion of the early days when they were debating whether to have subscribers or something else. “The wired network was too expensive.”

I have my broadband provided wireless (directional wifi antennas),phone is cellular, and my TV is satellite.

I built the house in 1998 with all the wires to network with anything. That has been largely abandoned.

Now the wired providers (AT&T and Cox cable) are providing all those services. Isn't the free market great? :)

[Venturer]

How many people does it take to receive a biased news report from AP and send it to someone who reads it.

[sirchtruth]

Wow,I thought Fox was a network with a news channel, hows Fox News doing anyway?

Outstanding, obviously! It's amazing, Fox reports the news fairly and rakes it in. The other networks are leftist biased to the hilt and are going under. You'd think these journalist and executives would even remotely get a clue, but apparently ignorant, arrogant dumbasses never learn!

[Nahanni]

But with news available more places than ever, on cable channels and Internet sites, and with revenue challenged by heavy dependence on shrinking advertising dollars, the future for the news divisions at ABC and CBS remains deeply insecure. What has to scare them is something that happened over the weekend. if you had tuned in during the first hours of the aftermath of the Chilean earthquake you will have noted a couple of things.

1. That only CNN dropped their prerecorded BS and carried TV Chile's live feed, which I watched via live streaming video on the internet. The rest for the first couple hours just did cut ins. Once they all went live they relied heavily on people's cell phone/downloaded video and twitter reports. To those of us with the knowledge and capability we got news from the scene faster then the cable news and regular networks could provide and without it being filtered through a bunch of helmet haired anchorpeople.

“Long term, it’s going to get harder for these guys to exist as they are currently constructed, with the exception of NBC because it can offload the costs on MSNBC,” Michael Nathanson, an industry analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, said.

Michael Nathanson is wrong. NBC Universal can not afford it any more then any of the others. The only "black" at MSNBC is the black hole the money is getting sucked into. If the Comcast deal goes through I would suspect that MSNBC will fold. The problem for all of these entities is that the business model they are operating on is about as outdated as the horse and buggy. My broadcast production professor told my class the very first day (many moons ago) that broadcasting is probably the worst managed business in the world because it makes money no matter what and making money provides cover for very bad business practices. Well, those days are over and the accountants are telling them that something has to give and alot of people have to go. Under the "current" model (which has not changed much from the 1960's) they have crap tons of assignment desk editors, video editors, camera crews, ENG/SNG truck operators, associate producers, etc.-a virtual Versailles of servants that are no longer needed. The days of reporters going on assignment with a cameraman, an audio operator, a ENG truck and a producer are over. As Chile proved they will get their butts kicked by someone with a cell phone or a video camera and a YouTube account.

Another thing that is over are the days of the overpaid anchors and reporters. They can no longer afford the exorbitant salaries they pay these people because they no longer bring in the viewers, in fact they have served to turn off many viewers with their condescension and arrogance. Money talks and right now what the owners of these entities are hearing from their accountants is that bubble headed bleach blonds like Katie Couric and rabid Keith Olberman are not worth what they are getting paid.

The one big question is how long will it take the owners and management of the networks to figure out that their biggest problem with their news divisions is their overt bias which is so bad that no one trusts them anymore to report the facts. I am going to guess that they will never figure it out-they, like their news staffs, all live in the gated community of the mind that exists in Hollywood and the upper west side of Manhattan. They simply can not understand why the rest of us do not see the world the way they do-these people know more about tribes in Africa then they do about the majority of the people in this country. For most of them we might as well be Martians, that is how little they know and understand us. They also can not understand why we do not bow before and blindly follow them-after all, in their minds they are our "intellectual betters" and we should blindly believe them and follow them.

[DGHoodini]

The only thing I can say, is: MSNBC is actually making a profit??? They must be operating on a shoe string. Whith their audience numbers, even that can’t last much longer.

[rbg81]

Also, I bet that with every mass layoff, these networks will get ideologically purer (e.g., even more Liberal). In the end they will just be hermatically sealed echo chambers serving an ever smaller audience. Newsweek is already the textbook case for this.

[wintertime]

So?...Why is this death taking so long?

[wintertime]

Andrew Heyward said of the ABC cuts: “The real issue after this is what will drive growth? How do you generate more profit?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Is Andrew serious?

How about being “fair and balanced”?

How about covering some of the stories the Fox refuses to cover? ( homosexual outrages and Obama’s eligibility)

[wintertime]

Andrew Heyward said of the ABC cuts: “The real issue after this is what will drive growth? How do you generate more profit?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Fox can afford them?

[Tribune7]

Profit? Survival? What about compassion??

DON'T THESE PEOPLE AT ABC CARE?????

[Jim Noble]

Lies just don’t work well.

Sure about that?

[Jack Hydrazine]

“You’d think these journalist and executives would even remotely get a clue, but apparently ignorant, arrogant dumbasses never learn!”

The Left considers itself to be the educated elite but their arrogance is their undoing. Newsprint started heading down hill around 1970. TV journalism was a little later. If they can’t take a hint after this lengthy period of time of decline what would make you think they would even remotely get a clue?

[dangus]

Fox doesn’t have a (broadcast) news division at all. The topic is network news divisions, Alex.

[dangus]

No, NBC broadcast is making a profit, because they offload their costs to MSNBC.

[dangus]

Yeah, how’s that hopey-changey thing working out for all the people who lied for him? Obama single-handedly rebuilt the conservative movement.

[dangus]

... At least that that’s the implication of the article. Seems to me, as I think about it, that I read that NBC got sold because it’s helping bleed GE dry.

[bmwcyle]

I live in the live and death realm. My perspective spands time. That success is very temporary.

[abb]

NBC/U is making money, just not as much as before. The cable channels (SyFy, Discovery, etc) are profitable. But whether the NEWS DIVISION is profitable, I don’t know. I’ve always heard CNBC is their cash cow, since their demographic is very desirable and they can charge high ad rates.

[dangus]

This isn’t good news. They’re cutting costs by transforming themselves from a news gathering agency with a strong bias, to one of simply reading Party talking points and the news releases of the Establishment Left. (Obviously, this transformation has been going on for a long time.)

Bernie Goldberg’s “Bias” is obsolete. It doesn’t even matter now whether journalists have bias; journalists have nothing to do with TV News.

Presenting unbiased news people want to see is simply not in the business plan. “Creative Division” simply wouldn’t stand for it, and it creates poor lead-in for shows based on trashy sex, murder, and compulsive behavior. And the shows are based on those things, because advertisers rely on people being influenced by trashy sex, compulsive behavior, and prevailing world view dominated by evil. It also conflicts with the four-hour-long informercials known as Morning News/Talk.

The best hope is that the networks get out of evening news altogether, but that would discredit the morning infomercials, so it’s gonna have to get a lot worse still.

[dangus]

Yeah, I think I’ve heard that about CNBC. Funny how MSNBC doesn’t hurt CNBC’s credibility. There seems to be an understanding in the business community that MSNBC is entertainment division, like SyFy.

[VRW Conspirator]

Bump

we got news from the scene faster then the cable news and regular networks could provide...

Every high schooler will realize this sooner or later.

[abb]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/03/americans_are_getting_their_ne.html
Pew: Internet surpasses newspapers, radio for news

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/anderson-cooper-said-to-meet-with-cbs-news-executives/
Anderson Cooper Said to Meet With CBS News Executives

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8542430.stm
Online ‘more popular than newspapers’ in US

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/ct-biz-0301-burns—20100301,0,2192494.column
Playboy’s focus centers on outsourcing, shrinking

http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/03/loving-mobile-and-print-five-key-findings-from-pews-new-news-study/
Loving mobile and print: Five key findings from Pew’s new news study

http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/03/the-right-information-the-right-way-at-the-right-time/
The right information, the right way, at the right time

[Cicero]

As far as I can see, there are no investigative reporters left. There are a few bright reporters who actually pick up the news one way or another and go with it. But the number of people going out in the field—and then leaving their hotel or the bar—is virtually nil.

Clinton got them hooked on the faxed talking points. And they can always re-shuffle the NY Times or the Washington ComPost, when they come up with a leaked interview.

But almost all of their highest-paid employees are talking heads, who read the propaganda that is put in front of them. Or on the NY Times OpEd page, they sit in the office or the bar and make up their column, never going out to check anything first hand.

You don’t need to actually visit the White House to know that Obama has a sharp crease in his trousers, or to repeat that he’s a greater orator than Abe Lincoln. Investigation would just make it harder to write those stories.

So, how many news staffers do you actually need? I imagine they no longer get their talking points via fax. Most likely they get them in MS Word or whatever format can go straight to the printers.

[abb]

I imagine they no longer get their talking points via fax. Most likely they get them in MS Word or whatever format can go straight to the printers.

Probably Adobe PDF...

[abb]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0310/CooperCBS_meeting_took_place_months_ago.html
Cooper’s spox shoots down CBS rumor

http://www.cjr.org/feature/tangled_web_1.php?page=all
A CJR survey finds that magazines are allowing their Web sites to erode journalistic standards

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=F1BEE054-18FE-70B2-A81A44D12F91A4C0
Edwards epilogue: Does the press really vet presidential candidates?

[thulldud]

we got news from the scene faster then the cable news and regular networks could provide...

Every high schooler will realize this sooner or later.

You can safely bet that they already know it.

[hinckley buzzard]

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

I notice you didn't venture an estimate as to how long "after the 2008 elections" your prophecy would come to pass...

[abb]

A fair criticism. I must admit the timing of my prediction was off, but I stand by the eventual outcome. The NY Times story says as much.

And it cannot be denied the impact of the network evening newscasts is lessening.

[RayChuang88]

NBC Universal does not own Discovery Networks.

But most of their operations ARE profitable, especially USA Network, CNBC and SyFy. But the big money losers are NBC News and in a way NBC Sports, especially the US$200 million loss on the Olympics in spite of the good ratings.

I do think NBC really mismanaged the Conan O'Brien-Jay Leno fiasco over The Tonight Show, and that ends up benefiting--CBS, who has done quite well with The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson lately.