FINAL April cover:ContentWare 4/5/10 1:02 PM Page 1 $5.00 October 2009 April 12, 2010 Big TV in Crisis Substantial Layoffs Churn the Waters at Major Networks Page 4 A Matter THE MOST of Ethics Bringing Digital POWERFUL Journalism Into the Fold IN TV NEWS Page 5 RTDNA 2010 News Directors Learn to Cope With Harsh Realities Our Annual Page 18 List of the People Who Matter Most Page 10 10np0023.qxp 3/26/10 3:27 PM Page 1 “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.” Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It SOCIETY OF ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISTS 20TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE HOSTED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA–MISSOULA Wild Rockies and the Changing West October 13-17, 2010 Team Coverage y of planet earth r S E sa J 2 t r 0 h A n n i v e w g w w . s e j . o r This year “the place” sells itself… We’ll get you out and about in the only still fully intact ecosystem in the lower 48. We’ll hear from leading scientists about the threats facing this ecosystem and see and feel the impacts to fl ora and fauna from climate change and other disturbances. We’ll have a plenary on The Changing West, headlined by Nobel laureate Steven Running, and another on Western Energy Frontiers, where we’ve invited Tom Friedman and Energy Secretary Steven Chu. We’ll have a group of European reporters join us, and we’ll hear renowned Western authors regale us with a sense of place. We’ll have a three-part video training workshop and a Western environmental law workshop and a post-conference tour to Glacier and beyond that’ll beat all. And, yes, it’s SEJ’s 20th anniversary, and we’ll do it up right at the Montana Snowbowl Lodge in the mountains outside of Missoula with our blowout party, where surprise VIP guests are expected. If you go anywhere this year… come to Missoula in October! 10np0023.pdf RunDate: 04/ 05 /10 Full Page Color: 4/C np06.qxp 4/5/10 12:33 PM Page 1 FROM THE EDITOR Beyond the Digital Crossroads If one overriding theme has emerged since the last gathering of the Radio- Contents Television News Directors Association in April 2009, it would have to be “incorporating digital.” It’s happening everywhere in professional journalism. FEEDS l 4 In the wake of deep staff cuts at CBS News and The most obvious evidence of that trend is in the new name the particularly ABC News, their newsrooms cope organization adopted last year: the Radio Television Digital News Association. with redefined roles, fear and uncertainty. At once, both slightly and profoundly different. *RTDNA and other organizations expand their codes of ethics to incorporate digital journalism. As part of its new identity, the RTDNA recently put together its Social *J-schools lean toward Mac computers. Media and Blogging guidelines to help members apply to digital journalism – long tarnished by amateurism, irresponsibility and inaccuracy – a new-world version of the same COVER STORY l 10 NewsPro’s annual 10 Most Powerful in TV News code of ethics long used in television news. As discussed in our story on Page 5, the Associated list looks at the major players who are making a Press and the Society of Professional Journalists are also finding ways to deal with the challenges difference in the television news game. of maintaining the traditional notion of ethics in new media journalism. RTDNA@NAB l 18 But incorporating digital doesn’t stop with mere theory, as staffers in the newspaper and TV The Radio Television Digital News Association newsrooms across the country have come to find. assembles in Las Vegas for its annual conference Tom Petner discovers in his column on Page 34 that many TV station news directors are already with an agenda topped by helping members deal with the fallout of a tough year. well into a TV-Web-mobile frame of mind. But as explored in our Page 4 story about major *A guide to trends and new product introductions network news layoffs, the realities of adapting to the new digital world have to some come the hard at the National Association of Broadcasters way: Both CBS News and ABC News have made deep cuts in their staffs, moving boldly toward convention. “backpack video journalism” by consolidating traditional reporter and cameraperson roles. SIGN OFF l 34 It’s particularly significant that the RTDNA is now convening for the last time as an adjunct A surprising number of news directors at local to the NAB convention, with plans in place to hold next year's conference in conjunction with the stations have embraced the three-screen strategy, readily targeting news for on-air, online and annual Society of Professional Journalists meeting. It’s yet another clear sign that as modern mobile consumption. journalism evolves, it’s more about the message than the means of delivering it. —Tom Gilbert, Editor BUSINESS l 28 NEWSMAKERS l 33 ADVERTISING SALES ONLINE l 32 Ph: (212) 210-0748 Fax: (212) 210-0772 TECHNOLOGY l 30 Executive Producer: Jeff Reisman, [email protected] (212) 210-0748 EDITORIAL OFFICES Producer: NewsPro (ISSN 2151-1764), Volume 1, Issue 6, is published Ph: (212) 210-0706 Fax: (212) 210-0772 Danny Schreiber, [email protected] (503) 723-9688 Monthly, except for combined issues in January/February and SUBSCRIPTION HOTLINE (888) 288-5900 November/December at Crain Communications Inc, 711 Third Ave, Production Manager: Nicole Dionne New York, NY 10017. / Periodical postage pending at New York, VP-Publisher: Robert Felsenthal, (212) 210-0262 Group Circulation Director: John LaMarca Circulation Manager: Nicole Chantharaj NY, and at additional mailing offices. 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Adams (1911-1996) Secretary: Merrilee Crain VP-Production & Manufacturing:David Kamis ® [ Visit us online at TVWeek.com/Newspro ] Treasurer: Mary Kay Crain NewsPro is a registered trademark of Crain Chief Information Officer: Paul Dalpiaz Communications Inc. April 12, 2010 | NewsPro | 3 April 12 NewsPro Feeds:Template 4/4/10 8:53 PM Page 1 said they were an attempt to cope * INFORMATION with economic pressures on the AND ANALYSIS FROM THE business, which has suffered from WORLD OF PROFESSIONAL audience erosion and advertising NEWS Feeds revenue shortfalls. NETWORK NEWS “The time has come to rethink how we do what we are doing,” he said in the memo. CutbacksRoilMajorNewsOperations “These are forces larger than any of us — business forces, just the ABC NEWS IS BEING realities of broadcast versus HARD HIT BY LAYOFFS THIS YEAR. digital, as well as financial forces, given the advertising market.” Not a Surprise “There’s no doubt we all saw some cutbacks coming because the news product is tied to advertising,” said Judy Muller, who worked as an ABC News correspondent for 15 years and is now a journalism professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. “The ones who are doing alright are public broadcasters, who never relied on that model, or NBC, which put some of its eggs in cable.” According to an ABC News employee who requested anonymity, all staff members were given the option to accept buyout offers by the end of By Hillary Atkin employees, and the Tel Aviv downsizing, perhaps the steepest March, and depending on how It was a one-two punch that sent bureau was left with just one ever at a network news division. many people opt out of their jobs, shockwaves through the producer. Even the vaunted “60 No formal numbers were given, further cuts will made. television news industry — a Minutes,” which has been spared but it’s estimated that as many “There’s a real nervousness grim reality check of the human the brunt of a series of personnel as 25 percent of the roughly amongst the staff, and it’s all toll that cost-cutting measures are cutbacks over the past few years, 1,500 network news employees anybody can talk about because of taking in these recessionary times. is losing some staffers. may be out of a job by the end the uncertainty of not knowing In early February, CBS News of this year. who is going to lose their jobs,” announced that it would once Severe Cuts ABC News President David said the staffer, who is not taking again trim staff, and although no Just weeks later, ABC News Westin, who announced the a buyout. He said Westin held numbers were confirmed, the announced a much more severe cutbacks in a memo to staffers, several open forums with staff layoffs reportedly affect 90 to 100 members to discuss the situation people, roughly 7 percent of the and told them the transitional CBS News work force, mainly at “Not only are they asking period would last through the its broadcast headquarters in New end of the year.