CBS Considering Outsourcing Some Newsgathering To CNN

New York Times:

CBS, the home of the most storied news division in broadcasting, has been in discussions with Time Warner about a deal to outsource some of its newsgathering operations to CNN, two executives briefed on the matter said Monday.

Over the last decade, CNN has held on-again, off-again talks with both ABC News and CBS News about various joint ventures but during the last several months, talks with CBS have been revived and lately intensified, according to the executives who were granted anonymity because of the confidential nature of the negotiations.

Broadly speaking, the executives described conversations about reducing CBS's newsgathering capacity while keeping its frontline personalities, like Katie Couric, the CBS Evening News anchor, and paying a fee to CNN to buy the cable network's news feeds.

Another possibility, these people said, would be that CBS would keep its correspondents in a certain region but pair them with CNN crews.

But, these people cautioned, no deal was imminent. Through a spokesman, CBS declined to comment. A CNN spokeswoman said, "we don't comment on speculative business matters."

For CNN, a deal with a broadcast network would mean a new revenue stream without having to add much in additional costs. For CBS, an arrangement with a cable channel would allow it to cut costs while maintaining the CBS News brand, although in a much pared down fashion. CBS is mired in last place amid the continuing struggles of Ms. Couric, who was given a $15-million a year contract, to attract new viewers.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[JohnInDallas]

Anybody who doubts the downfall of mainstream corporate news should be shown this story. This is a sad day for journalism in the United States.

Back in the day when network news actually reported news, the new divisions of CBA, NBC and ABC were loss leaders. It was a given that they would lose money. They were considered the crown jewels of the networks. CBS, in its heyday, was the industry frontrunner. Now network news divisions are cost centers and have turned into knock-offs of "Inside Edition."

Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly must be turning over in their graves. I'll bet Walter Cronkite is considering asking CBS to remove his voiceover at the beginning of CBS News. Perhaps CBS can get Paris Hilton or Brittany Spears to lend their voices as a replacement.

Thank heavens for the Huffington Post and other Internet sites!

[dhfsfc]

Why not implant speakers in everyone's head, and let Dana Perino broadcast the Bush spin all day long?

Now THERE'S consolidation of resources.

[Earl]

Soon we'll live in a world with 1000 "different" channels broadcasting identical corporate news. What? Oh. Never mind.

[swift goat pet for truth]

CBS would have more credibility if they outsourced their news to Jon Stewart.

[NoPCZone]

CBS News as a real news operation died during the cutbacks of the 1980's and is nothing more than 2 or 3 real bureaus (New York, Washington, London) these days. In the heyday of Walter Cronkite CBS had real bureaus all over the world much as BBC does today. These days they do voiceovers from New York or London on canned video from other video services- not real reporting. In Washington they act as little more than stenographers for those in power.
It tells you all you need to know about priorities when CBS spends over a half billion a year in rights fees for the NCAA Basketball Tournament but constantly starves the News operation. As lame as CNN is, anything would probably be an improvement.

[InfoGiant]

The media is so concerned with saving a buck, they'll draw on the democratic race, take us to war, and apparently use someone else to do their reporting. Great.

http://infogiant.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/wolf-blitzer-is-a-flake-and-a-moron/

http://infogiant.wordpress.com/

[Libsrule]

Maybe if CBS has spent a lot less money on that grinning idiot and spent more on getting real investigators who actually went looking for real news rather than try to find a way to spin everything to appeal to rightwing nutters, then maybe they wouldn't be in last place all the damned time.

Buy a good anchor for 4 mil a year, then spend 11 million doing great investigative journalism and watch your ratings go up instead of bring nutjobs like Rush on as though he had an intelligent brain cell in his entire body.

[GoodwithWood]

The MSM and their corporate masters have no one to blame for their downfall than themselves. I just hope I"m not wrong and they actually do fall down. They are an example of how extreme capitalism just creates society destroying greed.

GWW

[peachfuzz]

Well there you go--they showed some honest promise
in the last 9 months, now they are going to blow it.

Disappointed :(

[timothe]

Both organizations pretty much use Media Matters talking points anyway. Might as well.

[Libsrule]

IF they use MMFA talking points, (Which is pure bullshit by the way) then why is MMFA always criticizing them for their rightwing talking points and lies?

Typical lying Neo Clown. You CLAIM to want intelligent discourse and then do the usual bullshit about liberal sites promoting hate and divisiveness while ignoring the hate and fear mongering put forth non stop by the usual suspects like Rush Osamabinlumbaugh, Hannity, Bill-O and other hate mongers who lie by the hour and have yet to go one day without lying about anyone who disagrees with them or just outright lying about the days events.

So I figure the rightwingers who frequent this site project an awful lot. An awful lot.

[jubo]

CNN reports?

No, Charlton, it's not about food, it's in the MONEY.

[iPolitics]

Corporate news continues

[MadeinAmericaProud]

the power of the purse, Stop or continue to pay for TV news and get less for more money.

I support PBS.

[xargaw]

Another example of consolidation, fewer viewpoints and less investigative journalism. This kind of elimination of diverse view points and shrinking the industry diminishes the quality of the news and dumbs down the public. TV News and Newspapers are making themselves extinct. Young people already get most of their information from the web. How long will it be before web news is web generated with it's own investigative reporters, journalists, scientists, researchers, etc? Not long I predict. I think the quality will surely improve because the users will have more influence over content and it will be more colaborative and interactive.

[MadeinAmericaProud]

the power of the wallet or purse is the only voice big business CEO listen to.
The next step support Bill Moyers Journal on PBS

That to me is called grass roots again going without the trash and bash news for cash

If you pay, buy what we use to have years ago. Made in America quality products. We the people were sold a big lie just like the war we are in. That lie was we should be ashame of made in America, the made in a communist country is better, We are now in trillion dollars of debt to the communist.
We are no longer a super power, China has well over a billion people we only 3/4 billion people. we are numbered. Bush has to take his ass to china for their olympics.
We need their daily welfare check to buy oil and pay for our war. We are waiting for our stimulus money from china. I think the athletes should boycotts. The power of the purse is a thin line.

[postedby]

I posit that the free market has made things better: CNN was started and then started eating everyone's lunch. The networks could respond to this challenge and get better, or lose. Look at what they are doing. Ditto for the major newspapers. Ditto for the American auto manufacturers.

[rixhex56]

This is the next trend in consolidating information? Why even have a news show if your broadcast consists of someone else's reports?

Man, we are in worse shape than I thought!