Sinking CBS Considering Buying CNN Stories For Their Broadcasts?
Look at Cronkite’s microphone message…what happened to CBS?…
Related: CBS Denies Report
CBS, the home of the most celebrated news division in broadcasting, has been in discussions with Time Warner about a deal to outsource some of its news-gathering operations to CNN, two executives briefed on the matter said Monday.
Over the last decade, CNN has held intermittent talks with both ABC News and CBS News about various joint ventures. But during the last several months, talks with CBS have been revived and lately intensified, according to the executives who asked for anonymity because of the confidential nature of the negotiations.
Broadly speaking, the executives described conversations about reducing CBS’s news-gathering capacity while keeping its frontline personalities, like Katie Couric, the CBS Evening News anchor, and paying a fee to CNN to buy the cable network’s news feeds.
Another possibility, these people said, would be for CBS to keep its correspondents in certain regions but pair them with CNN crews.
For CNN, a deal with a broadcast network would mean a new revenue stream without having to add much in costs. For CBS, an arrangement with a cable channel would allow it to cut costs while maintaining the CBS News brand, although in a much trimmed-down fashion. CBS is mired in last place amid the continuing struggles of Ms. Couric, who was given a $15 million a year contract, to attract new viewers.
The discussions are being led by Sean McManus, the president of CBS News, and Jim Walton, president of the CNN news group. Many questions remain regarding unions, rights issues and the level of involvement of other CBS News products like “60 Minutes” and “The Early Show.”
If a significant deal is reached between CNN and CBS, it would mark a watershed in broadcast history, a strategic shift in the face of changing market forces by the network that is widely credited as having invented television news, establishing a powerful tradition with journalists like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite.
In 2007, however, “CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” was in third place, averaging 6.43 million viewers a night, down 13.4 percent from 2006, according to Nielsen Media Research. ABC averaged 8.38 million viewers for its nightly newscast, and NBC averaged 8.29 million. (Fox, the fourth major broadcast network, does not have a national newscast; Fox News Channel is a cable network like CNN.)
(NYT)
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April 8th, 2008 at 8:13 amWhat happened to the message? Just the chickens coming home to roost. That and a little competition does wonders. It is real easy for the libbies to win when they are the only one playing. On a somewhat level playing progressives always lose, usually in a landslide.
CBS’ problems started with the hiring of that sham Uncle Walty but who wants to discuss antiquity? What is the real paradox of the current CBS situation is why multi-billionaires thought that Perky Katie Couric was the answer to their problems.
Who said you got to be smart to be rich? Britney Spears and her mother have proven that isn’t so.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:23 amAMF! GOOD BYE GOOD RIDANCE! DING DONG THE 13 MILLION DOLLAR WITCH IS DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 8th, 2008 at 8:32 amcouric is just cronkite in drag
April 8th, 2008 at 8:41 am