The "Today"
show said goodbye to Katie Couric two years ago in a
televised bash designed to reduce the departing host
to tears. Couric didn't cry then, but as the ratings
for her "CBS Evening News" broadcast continue to drop,
she has plenty of reasons to cry now. And plenty of
company to cry with.
Although the big nightly
news shows on ABC, NBC and CBS still command a
collective audience of more than 23 million, the Big
Three face major challenges.
Revenues are down and
news staffs have been cut. The network news audience
is half of what it was 40 years ago and in 2007
dropped 5 percent from the previous year, the Project
for Excellence in Journalism reported this year. The
average viewer age was 61.
"I'm not sure kids
care about the news," said former CNN anchor Aaron
Brown, who has been teaching at Arizona State
University and will be joining PBS's "Wide Angle"
series in July.
"Eventually, the
25-year-olds will become the 35-year-olds, and all of
a sudden the great debates of the moment are going to
matter a little more to them. But I'm not persuaded
that they are going to get their news from
television."
News is becoming an a
la carte business as more people of all ages get their
information from Internet searches, YouTube clips and
updates sent to their phones. Media watchers and
broadcasters know that that TV news won't remain
viable if it doesn't start thinking outside the TV
box.
"Whether it is your
iPod, your daily download of top stories or getting a
text message on your phone to see what your favorite
blogger has just written, information has become much
more individualized, and that sense of coming to a
communal place together has been diminishing," said
Amy Mitchell, deputy director of the Project for
Excellence in Journalism.
"We need to figure out
how to communicate the important news of the day in a
way that fits how the world works now."
When Couric began her
$15 million-a-year stint anchoring "The CBS Evening
News" in 2006, it had been the third-place network
broadcast for more than a decade. In spite of a new
high-tech set, YouTube-style commentaries and
celebrity interviews, younger viewers did not tune in,
and established viewers began tuning out.
The broadcast has
since returned to a more traditional format, as rumors
of Couric's departure have driven ratings to record
lows. Although CBS recently made a $1.8 billion deal
to buy the tech-savvy CNET Web site, the network's
revenues are down; CBS News recently laid off about 1
percent of its nearly 1,200 employees.
"We did try something
different, and what we discovered was that you're
probably better off doing a traditional newscast that
traditional news viewers feel more comfortable
watching," said Sean McManus, president of CBS News
and CBS Sports.
"I think the
opportunity to attract new and younger viewers might
be there, but we were unsuccessful in doing it, and I
think other networks might be a little hesitant to try
something dramatically different because what we did
didn't work as well as we thought it was going to
work."
The cable news
outlets, with their 24/7 news cycle and blanket
coverage of the 2008 presidential race, are having
better luck attracting younger viewers. In 2007,
prime-time ratings for audiences ages 24 to 54 were up
22 percent at MSNBC and up 7 percent at CNN.
"CNN is always on, and
you know you can get an update any time. You can only
get network news at a certain time, and I think those
broadcasts are geared toward an older audience," said
Angela Chen, 21, a University of California San Diego
senior who plans to pursue a career in broadcast
journalism.
"People I know read a
lot of news online. Television is just inconvenient. A
lot of people don't have time to watch, or they don't
own a TV."
The networks aren't in
a hurry to revamp their evening broadcasts, but they
are experimenting with how they deliver their news to
consumers unwilling to sit down in front of a TV set
for a 30-minute news report each evening. Portions of
evening news shows are available on the Web, and all
three networks are attempting to reach multitasking
viewers through podcasts and cell phone updates.
"I think it's clear
from the numbers that our audience has
fractionalized," said Jon Banner, executive producer
for ABC's "World News," which nevertheless saw its
audience increase by almost 4 percent last year.
"That's probably going to continue. That's one of the
reasons why we have been aggressive in trying to
expand the brand into the digital world."
To reach younger
viewers, the networks have also joined with social
networking Web sites to promote their 2008 election
coverage. CBS News has partnered with Digg, and NBC
News has launched an election hub on MySpace.
ABC News has a
political partnership with Facebook, and the network
recently announced plans to open news bureaus on
campuses in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and
Texas, where students will report on local stories for
various ABC outlets.
Some of the stories
will turn up on ABC's "World News" webcast, the only
daily network newscast created specifically for the
Web. The webcast, which is executive-produced by
Banner and anchored by "World News" veteran Charles
Gibson, features younger correspondents and cultivates
a tone of casual urgency.
"That 15-minute
webcast that Charlie Gibson does every day is hipper,
funnier and a lot more informal than the product that
ABC puts on at 6:30," said Howard Kurtz, media
reporter for The Washington Post and host of CNN's
"Reliable Sources."
"It is a lot more
likely to include solid pieces on technology, or rock
groups or other subjects that would have some appeal
to people under 35. If they took more of those
elements and put them into the newscast, it wouldn't
necessarily drive the older viewers crazy, but it
would possibly draw in people who are not on
Medicare."
Since debuting in
January of 2006, the "World News" webcast has gotten
an average of 4 million downloads and Web site plays a
month.
"A lot of smart people
work (at the networks), and I think they have the
capacity to save themselves by being more aggressive
and changing their mission," Kurtz said. "We always
accept that they give you 19 minutes of news at 6:30,
but what if NBC or ABC put on a one-hour special on
politics once a week at 8 or 9 when people are home? I
also think they could do more with their Web sites
than simply throwing up the day's clips."
In an increasingly
fragmented media landscape, most big-dog institutions
are finding that their territory is not what it used
to be. Circulation at Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and
World Report magazines remained flat, while newspaper
circulation dropped 2.5 percent last year. Prime-time
network television viewing - whether it is sports,
soaps or entertainment - fell 7 percent. Movie ticket
sales were stagnant, and radio lost 1.7 percent of its
audience.
For the networks'
evening news shows, a do-or-die question is looming.
When consumers gather their own news at their own
speed, is this broadcast institution even relevant
anymore?
"In 10 years, there
will probably be fewer of them. Probably two instead
of three," Brown said. "And I'm not persuaded that
people are going to get their news from television any
more than I'm persuaded that they are going to get
their news from a hard copy of a newspaper. ... It's
going to be an Internet thing, it's going to be where
they want it, when they want it and how they want it."
At the moment, 23
million people still get their evening news fix from
Katie, Charlie and, on NBC, Brian Williams.
On its own, the
much-maligned "CBS Evening News" drew more than 6
million viewers a night last year. Couric's 6 p.m.
show draws more viewers here than Gibson's, or
Williams'.
Nationally, audiences
for ABC's "World News" and NBC's "Nightly News"
averaged 8.38 million and 8.29 million viewers,
respectively.
In contrast, the
prime-time audience for Fox News, CNN and MSNBC cable
news channels averaged 2.6 million combined.
You could argue that
the networks' collective audience is worth something
in this era of niche media.
The Big Three recently
announced that they are combining forces to raise
money for cancer research with an hourlong, prime-time
telethon Sept. 5. The event will include performances
and the news anchors talking about cancer.
You could also say
that as busy and distracted as we all are, a smart
wrap-up of the big events of the day is probably a
more efficient source of information than all of our
random Googling and YouTubing.
