CNN-ABC: More news is good news
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CNN had just gone on the air for the first time and we network types were appropriately derisive. "No-name newsreaders" were announcing copy from -- would you believe -- Atlanta!
And the pre-launch spin from Ted Turner that "the news was the star" meant there were no high-priced personalities with extensive newsgathering credentials. True, CNN was on a newly added fourth monitor in the ABC newsroom alongside our own feed and those of CBS and NBC but it was simply visual wallpaper.
None of us standing there that day or, for that matter, for quite a few years after, gave much thought to CNN as our competition. So, it may come as a surprise that someone with my stripes earned as a network news executive for 45 years would think that a merger of CNN and ABC News is a good idea. It is. And if it happens (no sure thing, by any means) it will be a win-win situation for ABC News, CNN and American television news viewers.
Comparing the quality of the journalism practiced at both organizations must acknowledge the superiority of ABC News' staff in most places and that expertise would continue to show up everyday at a merged organization.
Jennings, Koppel, Walters and Sawyer and many of the ABC News beat correspondents would probably appear in expanded ABC News/CNN programming on the cable network. Opinionated broadcasts like CNN's "Capital Gang" or George Will's commentary on ABC's "This Week" would undoubtedly continue to provide diverse "voices" on the air.
CNN has tapped the editorial savvy of Time Inc. publications since it combined with Time Warner, and it presumably would be available to the new merged entity. CNN's level of reportage, particularly in Washington, DC, has dramatically improved.
The recent hiring of Paula Zahn (her "American Morning" is delivering the richest news content of all the networks in the morning); Aaron Brown (formerly of ABC News and arguably the paradigm of what future anchors should be) and Connie Chung are examples of a significant upgrade in quality.
The chairman of CNN is Walter Isaacson, a skilled, dedicated and knowledgeable journalist whose credentials match anyone's in the news business. The new ABC News/CNN entity would not suffer from a lack of management experience or reportorial skill. Viewers would benefit from having access to both teams 24/7.
It has been reported that CNN generates more than $200 million in profits while ABC News makes about $60 million. Merging could save at least $100 million in costs. Even if a very small fraction of that sum is plowed back into the news operations at both ABC News and CNN, the end product will improve.
Both organizations are feeling the financial pinch. ABC News has closed many of its overseas bureaus and cut back its domestic bureaus as well. Several experienced correspondents have taken pay cuts or been sent into early retirement. The prospect of a war against Iraq has many at ABC News worried about how much its coverage will cost and where the funds will be found to pay for it.
What factors into the merger equation on the plus side is that CNN has a newsgathering infrastructure in place around the world. Beefing up its operations in Baghdad or Qatar will not cause a geometric increase in the cost of newsgathering.
Finally, there is the question of corporate attitudes. A merged CNN/ABC News entity will have the gathering and distribution of news and information as its sole goal.
That is important because when it come to costs and ratings, it is clear that ABC corporate management no longer considers its news division sacrosanct. Some producers at ABC News worry about possible interference in the previously inviolate editorial conferences of the news division. On the CNN side, some staffers grumble about perceived pressure from AOL/TW executives to "jazz up" their presentation. Presumably, a merged ABC News/CNN operation would find itself inoculated against this kind of intrusion.
There are many thorny issues that will need to be resolved before this merger takes place. Almost any one of them could torpedo the project. They include editorial control, criteria for new hires , on air assignments and housekeeping items like union contracts. They are still unresolved. But if the dominant issue is delivering better news coverage, the other matters ought to be swept out of the way.
ABC News and CNN standing together is a very pleasant prospect.
(Av Westin spent 21 years at ABC News and 20 years at CBS News as a reporter, editor, producer and director. His most recent book is "Best Practices for Television Journalists," published by the Freedom Forum.)
