I post a lot of Media coverage, because they control the material we use to form our opinions. This changeover at CNN is a fascinating story to follow. For all the "Yak,Yak," about better news coverage, they need excitement to raise the ratings. Eason Jordan just lost a lot of power.
September 16, 2003
General Manager Is Replaced in a Reorganization at CNN
By JIM RUTENBERG - NEW YORK TIMES
Trailing in the ratings behind the Fox News Channel, CNN announced a reorganization yesterday meant to help it produce more compelling news programs.
The changes include a management reshuffling in which Teya Ryan, the general manager of CNN's domestic network, will step down. She is to be succeeded by a Viacom executive, Princell Hair, whose main experience has been in local television news.
The main change, said Jim Walton, CNN's president, is a fundamental shift in the way CNN collects its news.
The network has traditionally relied on a central news-gathering operation that made the main decisions on what to cover for all of CNN. Producers for the various CNN networks and programs had to pick reports from among its daily offerings — even if they did not quite suit their program plans.
Now that news operation, formerly under CNN's chief news executive, Eason Jordan, is to be decentralized, freeing individual producers and network executives to decide which news events they want to cover.
Under the new structure Mr. Jordan, who has spent his career at the network, will retain his chief news executive title. He will continue to focus on securing CNN's access in foreign countries, executives said, while also developing projects and possibly appearing sometimes on television.
Ms. Ryan is known within the network for having a stern management style that sometimes puts her at fierce odds with some producers. Ms. Ryan said if she comes off as stern it was because, "I have a strong vision and I'm also a producer."
Mr. Walton said in a conference call with reporters yesterday that the new structure was less suited to Ms. Ryan's skills, which fall more on the side of the production of programs than they do on the managing of news resources.
"It was pretty clear to me that we needed to bring somebody in who had the ability to lead and motivate and manage," he said, adding that given Ms. Ryan's passion for production "We agreed that it would probably be best to look to change."
But the naming of her successor, Mr. Hair, surprised competing news executives because he is mostly unknown and relatively young at 36.
He was most recently the vice president in charge of news for Viacom's 39 stations. Before that he was news director at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, WBAL-TV in Baltimore and WMAQ-TV in Chicago.
Mr. Walton said local news was a good training ground for Mr. Hair because, like cable news, it is highly competitive, requires the management of brand-name talent and produces many hours of newscasts daily.
Some reporters on the conference call asked yesterday whether Mr. Hair would bring to CNN all that local news is known for — sensational news coverage, promotion and ratings stunts.
Mr. Hair said he would not.
"What local news does, local news does," he said. "This is a different animal."
Mr. Hair did not exactly exalt his old stomping grounds, saying, "My background is local news, but I'm a journalist at heart."
nytimes.com |
