• Variety, Wednesday, April 26, 2006 11:19 AM

Television--and particularly television news--is changing so rapidly that Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw, both gone from the airwaves only a year, seem almost like characters out of the medium's distant past. And yet both may have represented a TV-news golden era. The two spoke movingly about their medium this week at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas. As more platforms and outlets for news develop with new technologies and devices, broadcast news will have to work hard to stay relevant, Brokaw told the industry crowd. "I believe the great challenge for our industry now is to develop a synergistic approach" that incorporates current and future delivery platforms, he added. "We're rushing into a new-media universe without a full appreciation of what forms they will take. I hope they'll all complement each other, but I do think the industry is behind in (ensuring) that. We're on a rocket ship at the moment, destination unknown." Rather said, "I don't know what's ahead," but in the new multiplatform environment, "it's important that the news remain the news." He warned against reporters spending too much time "regurgitating" the same story--for a broadcast channel first, then maybe for a Web site, then for something else--instead of constantly pursuing fresh stories.

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