March 3, 2005

Put Down That Newspaper and Step Away from the Anchordesk

THERE'S SO MUCH GOOD SENSE in Peggy Noonan's And That's the Way It Was: How to revive CBS News, that it is hard to know what to highlight. So, at random, let's choose a pocket essay on exactly why The New York Times is very bad for broadcast news:

If you allowed your fine and grizzled correspondents to find the answers and tell us, you would get a fresh and refreshing broadcast. But this does involve putting down your copy of the New York Times.

I worked at CBS 20 years ago and what was true of us then is true now, and true of every other network newsroom: They key evening news coverage off the front page of the New York Times. In Ken Auletta's piece in The New Yorker this week on Dan Rather's goodbye he has Mr. Rather in a "Front Page" mode, briskly asking his executive producer what the lead will be that night. Iraq, he answers, and part of the package keys off today's Times report.

Why do they do this? Is it because the Times knows everything? No. And network producers know it doesn't know everything. But the bosses of the producers read the Times. And the owners of the network read the Times. And the subordinates of the producers read the Times. They do this because it's there. If it's in the Times, it's real. This is a thought-hangover from 30 years ago, but it lingers.

Thirty years ago this thinking was more understandable. The Times, infuriating on any given day or not, was acknowledged as the nation's great newspaper. But the Times is now simply an esteemed newspaper. And more and more it plays to a niche, Upper West Side liberals wherever they are. It is not the voice of the age, it is a voice. So less reason than ever to key your coverage off it.

Worse, it kills creativity and enterprise. And it makes the news boring. Who wants a 7 p.m. newscast that reflects the newspaper that hit the Internet 18 hours earlier? The old excuse was, Yeah but we got moving pictures. Now however those pictures have been all over the news by the time it's 7p.m.

Turn this bad old habit on its head. Don't make "It was in the Times" the reason to do a story. Make "It was in the Times" a reason not to do it.

Ms. Noonan provides other measures for restoring the luster (and profitabillity) of network news. In fact, she draws those who manage it a road-map to success. Will they follow it? Not for a nano-second. They're too busy planning for their next off-roading expedition at Davos.

Posted by Vanderleun at March 3, 2005 9:06 AM
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When I was on Wall Street, the same phenomenon
centered around the WSJ. One of the main reasons
so many were caught off guard at the beginning
of the great gold rush of the 70s. The WSJ just
could not believe it was happening and for months
people delayed getting in. The 'rush' didn't
go crazy until gold hit $300.00, coming from $35.
Lot of missed profit there.

Posted by: Steel Turman at March 3, 2005 2:23 PM