CBS Evening News Looks For Promotion, Ratings--And, Oh Yeah, Some Breaking News
CBS says its new Katie Couric-anchored "CBS Evening News" won't be revolutionary, but more evolutionary, when it relaunches this fall. CBS is finally understanding the new role of TV news.
CBS already made revolutionary changes with the hiring of Couric in May as the first woman to solo anchor a broadcast network daily news show. Then Couric rested--a bit.
While Couric did take off the month of June for some heavy-duty sleep, after years of early morning alarms for "The Today Show," she did have some reporting work to do. To Couric's credit, she has been on a 'listening tour'--which some critics have already snickered at. Is Couric 'listening' for news?
No, Couric just wanted to talk with viewers, with no press around. This isn't a promotional thing, she says. If it was a serious promotional effort, CBS would be doing a tour of, say, 20 or 30 major markets, not just six cities that include Minneapolis, Dallas, Denver and San Diego.
But the real promotion is coming. In making its big splash on Sept. 5, CBS will offer the "CBS Evening News" on a variety of platforms--online, mobile, on-demand, and radio, to name a few. Now it needs to be everywhere, just like CNN's creation of a worldwide platform in the '80s and '90s. The news--and breaking news--will come later.
Dan Rather won't have this formula to work with. The ex-CBSer Rather is now heading to Mark Cuban's HDNet, with a weekly show called "Dan Rather Reports," a show which will focus on hard-edged, investigative reporting.
HDNet doesn't have the promotional resources of a CBS--but breaking news will, in theory, take care of this. In theory. Cuban hopes the old rules apply just one more time for the TV news business.
The new world of TV news doesn't work the same way. Fox News can make incredible rating gains not by necessarily breaking news, but by packaging it well, with well-known, opinionated newscasters.
CBS now says it just wants to have a good solid newscast with a well-known TV personality. At the TV Critics Tour in Pasadena, Calif., this week, the network didn't necessarily say it would hound every bad politician or thieving CEO.
The new world of TV News comes to the Tiffany Network.
WAYNE FRIEDMAN
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost.
Recent TV Watch Articles
-
TV Stations' Future Digital Goals: Not Living By Algorithms Alone May 24, 4:20 p.m.
Some TV station executives may not like the ROI specifics around the digital business model that ...
-
Media Execs Re. $1 Bil NewFront Estimates: What Are They Smoking? May 23, 12:51 p.m.
Wild upfront digital video estimates postured that many platforms/sites could get $1 billion in upfront money ...
-
TV Distributors Looking For More Programming Control, Possibly With Some Big-Media Approval May 21, 9:56 p.m.
DirecTV and Time Warner Cable are two traditional TV programming distributors kicking the tires at Hulu. ...
-
When News Twists In The Wind, TV Show Up Faster & With More Detail May 21, 12:24 a.m.
Seemingly minutes after a massive tornado hit, an MSNBC news image showed a speedboat sitting on ...
-
Big TV Broadcast Development for 2013-2014: But Where Is The New Reality? May 17, 9:37 a.m.
Good news for those who still believe in broadcast network television: There some 52 new shows ...
-
2013 TV Upfront Conclusion: Harder For Viewers To Avoid Commercials May 16, 7:40 a.m.
TV commercial overload: It's not over yet.While the TV industry works out its online and digital ...
-
Where Do TV Broadcast Networks Fit In A La Carte Programming? May 15, 9:58 a.m.
It may be no coincidence that Sen. John McCain's bill to revamp most of the modern ...
-
Will You Fail TV's test... Or Will TV Fail You? May 14, 9:56 a.m.
Take a TV test. TV networks still believe your positive results are crucial for their fall ...
-
Upfront Nerves: Digital Executives On Edge. TV Executives? Calm Before The Storm May 13, 1:57 p.m.
Pre-upfront time media executive nerves are on edge.Senior media agency executives are telling major digital video ...
-
Can Cable Or Digital Content Networks Provide Relief For TV's 'Failure Tax'? May 10, 4:41 p.m.
Failure tax? Is that what marketers continue to pay to TV broadcasters? Yes, according to Mel ...
Be the first to comment on "CBS Evening News Looks For Promotion, Ratings--And, Oh Yeah, Some Breaking News"
Leave a Comment