Network TV Newsroom Investment

Over the course of 2005, the networks made statements suggesting new recognition that instead of the TV set, the key to their future might be the Web, with its interactive, multi-media and on-demand qualities. But recognition and action do not always connect. What has happened so far?

CBSNews.com

Of the three, CBS has certainly attracted the most attention. That began with the hiring in April 2005 of Larry Kramer, the creator of CBS MarketWatch, to a new position as president of CBS Digital. Two months later, Kramer publicly told a gathering in Virginia : “You'll see us morph our news business into a Web-centric one. We're doing what we call the cable bypass. The Web is going to be our cable news network." Part of that would be what Kramer called “a continuum of coverage throughout the day. You'll have a menu of video, a continuous stream of video that you can pick and choose from." He added that CBS would put its entire archive of news video online, making it free initially, and even ventured that "I would argue that the vaunted CBS news operation is going to be substantially supported by Web revenues. It's not rocket science — if the audience is spending time on the Web, you've got to be on the Web."1

Some of that is evident on the CBS Web site. By January 2006, CBS was the only network that allowed users to “Build Your Own Newscast” by creating a video playlist from CBS’s offerings, pulling together stories in a particular order and watching a newscast of their own creation. Through a video player named “The EyeBox,” CBSNews.com allows users to stream over 25,000 new and archived videos. CBS also announced it plans to offer daily and weekly video programming from Bob Schieffer, John Roberts, Hannah Storm, and other correspondents.

CBS has also devoted itself to unprecedented “transparency,” another hallmark of the Web. It created a separate Web site, Public Eye, that is more independent of the newsroom than anything at other networks. The site serves as a kind of online ombudsman, adopts the informal voice of the Web, involves outside contributors and includes a central discussion thread, monitored by the site’s editor, in which citizens can openly criticize and question CBS decision-making. The criticism often invites responses from the CBS News people who were involved in the stories being criticized.

The site also includes a fairly sizable menu for podcasting, where listeners, if not yet viewers, can download various CBS programs.

NBCNews.com

NBC News was probably first to innovate on the Web, for two reasons. First, the Web site of its news division is produced in cooperation with its online cousin, MSNBC.com, a joint venture of NBC and Microsoft. MSNBC.com provides prominent links to the homepages of MSNBC TV, the “Today Show,” “Nightly News,” “Dateline” and “Meet the Press,” alongside stories from the latest edition of Newsweek magazine, video packages from NBC’s broadcast and cable entities (on January 23, 2006 the site headlined CNBC video about the Ford Company’s plant closures), and a vast listing of stories on topics ranging from U.S. and international news to sports and entertainment.

NBCNews.com also offers podcasts of NBC news programs including highlights from “Today,” the complete broadcasts of the “Nightly News” (as of 11 p.m. EST ) and the full broadcast of “Meet the Press.” The site also hosts a variety of options from MSNBC including content from “Hardball,” “Scarborough Country” and “The Situation.”

NBC Nightly News also attracted the attention of many media writers when Brian Williams, still new to his role as the program’s anchor, wrote the first posting for “The Daily Nightly.” Launched on May 31, 2005 , it was designed to provide the evening newscast with a degree of transparency. It opened up a window for citizens to hear how decisions were made, why stories were selected and the things that go on when the cameras aren’t rolling. On September 29, Williams opened his post: “This afternoon we did a Special Report for our NBC stations on the swearing-in ceremony for Chief Justice John Roberts. While the White House notified the networks that they had scheduled a 3 p.m. EDT event, (and we had planned accordingly for that ‘hard start’ time) we received a two-minute warning (while I was in our afternoon editorial meeting) at 2:51:50 , almost ten minutes early. By the time I got to the studio (after traveling at a high rate of speed, past at least one tour group walking between our NBC News studios) we had missed the top of the President's remarks. We have protested via e-mail to members of the White House communications staff.”2

NBC’s approach is interesting. Many enthusiasts believe the new media environment — online broadcasts, podcasts, blogs and vlogs — emphasizes the role of the citizen/user. Individual news consumers are able to choose what stories to view and listen to or read them in whatever order they wish. By choosing to place the “Nightly News” broadcast online in its entirety, and build the blog around the anchor, NBC is signaling the importance of the anchor as editor and manager of the network’s news content.

ABCNews.com

ABC’s big distinction is that it is for now the only network to Webcast a live pre-edition of its evening news. A version of the program airs on the Web at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time and is then made available for download at any time after 4:00 .

“World News Tonight’s” blog serves very much the same function as NBC’s “Daily Nightly,” offering viewers or online readers an opportunity to get additional information about the stories of the day, to hear about what goes on behind the scenes and to hear it told in a fashion that they might not get in the more formal setting of a news broadcast. During the Supreme Court hearings for Samuel Alito, “This Week’s” anchor, George Stephanopolous, sent Blackberry messages to the site including: “Only after Joe Biden snarkily promised that he wouldn't ask Alito for the ‘blood test‘ his conservative colleagues seemed to want from President Bush's last nominee Harriet Miers did Alito let loose with a little grin that seemed to say...’what a jerk.’”3 To be sure, ABC News was already very familiar with the possibilities of blogs. The network’s political unit made a notable online impression with its groundbreaking political blog “The Note” in January of 2002. That blog, which actually started out as an internal e-mail, has become a significant online destination for political junkies and insiders.

Beyond the differences, a review of the three sites heading into 2006 showed that to a casual observer, the three sites had much in common: each featured blogs; each offered video online; and each offered its newscast online. Each site offered content beyond what had aired on TV, and each was trying, in varying degrees, to take advantage of what the Web offers that TV does not — infinite space and time (on January 13, 2006, ABC News offered a podcast of the co-anchor Bob Woodruff speaking to ABC News’s Hari Sreenivasan and Jake Tapper about his trip to the Mideast); the ability to scroll through complicated packages of information at the visitor’s own pace (CBSNews.com featured a graphics-rich timeline and deconstruction of the CIA Leak story); and the ability to pull news and news stories (including video) at a time that suits the visitor’s schedule, not that of the network.

What the three sites really offered heading into 2006 was the sense that the networks have come to the conclusion that the Web may be their future rather than their demise. What is not yet clear, realistically, is what they will make of it or how they will make money from it. But the recognition, it seems, is now there.