STAR-CROSSED NEWSROOMS
A
flurry of cutbacks engulfs the local TV news business
Anyone who's been in the television news business for
a decade or more has seen it before. A tough economy always means
cutbacks, so it wasn't a surprise when the axe fell at stations across
the country this spring. But the buyouts and layoffs this time around
signal something more than a predictable reaction to a looming recession.
Prominence
and longevity — and the high salaries they tend to guarantee — used
to make some TV news people seem invulnerable. Not any more. Some
of the nation's best-known local news anchors and reporters were let
go in a brutal week of layoffs at CBS-owned stations from Sacramento
to New York.
WBZ in Boston dumped legendary sports anchor Bob Lobel,
who had worked there since 1979. KPIX in San Francisco dismissed four
reporters who had a combined 61 years of service at the station. WCCO
in Minneapolis cut a 22-year-veteran meteorologist and a weekend anchor.
In Los Angeles, longtime KCBS coanchors Harold Greene and Ann Martin
were told their multimillion dollar contracts would not be renewed.
At WBBM in Chicago, anchor Diann Burns was terminated seven months
before her seven-figure contract was to expire.
There were cuts behind the scenes, too. At the CBS station
in Denver, video editor Shawn Montano was let go after winning his
second editor of the year award from the National Press Photographers
Association. A week before he was fired, he says, the KCNC newsroom
had a party to celebrate his achievement. Other stations also are
cutting back, just not as publicly. WSAZ in Huntington, West Virginia,
owned by Gray Television, let eight production people go in March.
The Fox station in Philadelphia laid off four news writers.
The
layoff decisions weren't based solely on salaries, of course, but
money was the driving force. Burns, for example, had been lured away
from the market-leading ABC station in Chicago five years ago in an
effort to pull WBBM's ratings out of the cellar. Higher ratings would
have meant more advertising revenue. But the strategy didn't work
and she became expendable. "There's this perception that [television
news anchors] are all Teflon superhuman celebrities," longtime WCCO
anchor Don Shelby told MinnPost.com. "We're not. We make widgets,
and the widgets are news."
So maybe it doesn't matter as much who makes the widgets
if it doesn't make a difference to the customers. And that means the
local TV news formula of using star anchors to attract viewers may
be headed for the ash heap. It's expensive and apparently not that
efficient if you consider the recent downturn in both audience and
advertising.
In 2007, for the second year in a row, ratings fell
for local evening and late night newscasts, according to the annual
survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism; morning news numbers
barely held steady. Advertising that has moved online is not coming
back to broadcast news, and most local online ad spending is on Internet
"pure plays," not TV or radio Web sites, according the research and
consulting firm Borrell Associates. That suggests the local station
shakeout is far from over.
"I would presume that everything has to be considered
as the business moves forward, as television redefines itself and
as the market redefines itself," says Shelby, a star anchor himself
whose contract is up in 2010.
He's exactly right, because the budget crunch hitting
stations today is entirely different from past setbacks that could
be weathered by temporary cost-cutting. "You're talking about a financial
struggle that is not cyclical," says Jerry Gumbert, president and
CEO of the broadcast consulting firm AR&D. "It's not going to turn
around soon, and probably not at all."
Cost reduction can help stations keep going in the short
term, but Gumbert says it's not a viable long term strategy. So what
is? "We tell them to reengineer the newsroom to operate in a world
with new revenue realities."
That means placing more emphasis on delivering the news
by means other than traditional broadcasts and less on presentation
by highly-paid anchors and reporters. The recent cutbacks suggest
that stations are beginning to get the point.
Innovation can kill a business that refuses to adapt
and change. Just ask Polaroid. The company that made its name and
fortune on instant photography finally threw in the towel in February
and announced it will stop making film — it had already stopped making
instant cameras — and will focus instead on the flat-screen TVs and
digital cameras.
Local TV news could become another Polaroid, left in
the dust by technology while continuing to produce a product fewer
and fewer consumers want or need. Or it could take a page from a different
camera company's playbook and turn itself around.
Remember how bleak things looked for Kodak a few years
back? The company bet on disposable film cameras just as digital was
taking off. In 2003, its stock price hit a 20-year low. Since then,
Kodak has cut almost half its work force and become a leading digital
brand, not just by changing its products but by reinventing itself
as a service company.
The lesson for TV news seems obvious. Cutting jobs won't
solve the problem. It's reinvention time. Anyone listening?
By
Deborah Potter www.newslab.org
HOME
HOME
Headlines
Suspect
in fatal crash found in TV vehicle
NBC11
Reporter Robbed While Covering Story On Smash-And-Grabs
LA
TV news stringers to become TruTV series
Wilmington
to be digital TV test market
Barrington
To Slash Staff
WNBC
Plans 24-Hour News Channel
ABC
News to launch on-campus bureaus
Some
Pappas Telecasting Stations file for Chapter 11
Deputies
use Taser on sportscaster in jai
l
Jane
Fonda Slips C-Word Past NBC Today Censors
CBS
Lays Off CSTV Staffers
Man
charged in snowmobile crash that killed TV anchor
Former
Tampa Reporter busted for Child Porn
Former
Boise TV anchor arrested for domestic abuse
Former
Meteorologist Wants Jail Sentence Tossed
Davenport
TV station lays off 12, cancels 2 newscasts
Can
Columbus' famously combustible news director be tamed?
GM
apologizes for weatherman's goof
L.A.
mayor's girlfriend demoted by TV station
FCC
urges fine for Comcast
BBC
to integrate news operation
NFL's
new vest policy is out of line
Another
news chopper incident
Ex-forecaster
insists she's not guilty of shoplifting
'Early
Show' bails on flooded studio
Pit
bulls attack TV, radio station workers
Police
review actions of TV crew at office protest
Voice-over
actor tapped as traffic reporter
Family
files civil suit against anchor
Eyewitness
News back on after fire
Broken
Pipe Cripples TV News
Philly
shooter slugged
Photog
arrested
Camerawoman
files claim against Los Angeles
Global
TV cameraman saves toddler
Pittsburgh
station sorry for misplaced news tease
Hopefuls
jam station's traffic-reporter tryout
News
anchor jailed, charged with felony
Man
accused of threatening TV reporter
Another
TV News Copter Goes Down
TV
Station Fires Worker Over Porn Prank
TV
Reporter Found Guilty Of Contempt
TV
Helicopter Pilot Saves Stranded Deer
*Watch
video
Pols
Call For Warning Labels on Analog-Only TV Sets
No
charges in arrest of 'Car Czar' reporter
Former
Channel 7 analyst arrested on child sex charges
Philly
station launches mostly unscripted newscast
Boston
TV's Ansin defends mass firings
Charity's
director sues WFLA-TV reporter
Boston
radio giant fires entire news team
Roanoke
TV station fires meteorologist over MySpace photo
'Borat' duped TV producer
Former TV Reporter Indicted For Cruise Ship Conduct With Boys
KTMD
losing most of news staff
Broadcast
Workers Oppose Dereg
TV
Takes a Page Out of Newspaper Hardships
Students
make 'Point' on TV news
Fox
journalists released in Gaza Strip, ending nearly two week hostage ordeal
Cincy
TV stations settle sideline-camera flap
Death
stuns, angers reporter's family
Bossier
City businessman accused of attacking TV crew
Wife
of kidnapped Fox cameraman makes tearful plea for release
Ex-news
anchor arrest
Popular Weatherman
Passes
Former
TV personality charged with soliciting a child
Voice
of the Razorbacks Dies in Car Accident
Sentence
in crash that kills photog
Cameraman
tossed from tour
TV
station editor beaten up over report about broken privatisation promises
Chopper
4 crashes during search
Once again a near death incident. Glad everyone's safe...but
here's another reason why I've given up helicopters for good.
Cameraman
Claims He Slept With Princess Diana
Now that's what I'm talkin' about. You go get 'em
cameraman!
Broadcasters'
audience size sets new low
The least-watched week in history. Going downnnnn....
Bank
robbery foiled by TV reporter
Fox,
AP Settle Photog Flap
"Miraculous
Recovery" for CBS' Dozier
Holdin'
Globes
New
pandemic fear as cameraman falls ill in bird flu village
Reporter
killed in head-on collision
NBCU
Puts Four Stations Up for Sale
PGA
Announces New Agreements With CBS, NBC
Fire
kills anchorman
Former
TV reporter charged with shoplifting
Anchorwoman
Accepts Proposal on Air
Ex-TV
reporter Barth joins race for seat in Congress
ABC
Cameraman shot dead in Baghdad
Shootout
video cameraman drops out of sight
Spitting
at TV cameraman earns suspension
Pittsburgh
TV Reporter Cited For Trespassing
TV photogs attacked outside court
Break-in
delays W. Va. newscast debut
Viacom lays off 11 at KOVR, KMAX
Colo.
station suspends local news
NFL
won't act on Benson altercation with TV crew
Cameras
Captured a Disaster but Now Focus on Suffering
Cameraman Assaulted
