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In This Issue
Promo of the Day
TV News Morphs as Cuts Deepen
Olympics Favored on West Coast
Palin on 'Tonight' Trumps Letterman
Conan Fans Overrun ‘Tonight’ Show Forum
Lorne Michaels has Faith in Conan
'Gilligan's Island' Resurfaces for Big Screen
Viacom, Hulu Part Ways
Marketers Jittery on Effectiveness of TV Ads
Facebook Nears $700M, Heading Up, Report Shows
Big Biz Hearts Twitter
Twitter’s Ad Plan: Copy Google
Message From Michael
Scrappy Crew of 'Good Morning America' Puts On a News Show
Quotes
"Every new technology supposedly has to kill an older technology to make room for itself. But that's not how media works. What actually happens is that people find room in their lives for the new medium alongside the media they already love — as long as those media continue to evolve and provide an irreplaceable value."
— Charles H. Townsend, Condé Nast; Cathie Black, Hearst Magazines; Jack Griffin, Meredith Corporation; Ann Moore, Time Inc.; and Jann Wenner, Wenner Media—talk about the vitality of magazines as a medium in this YouTube video: "Magazines, The Power of Print"
“All evolution in thought and conduct must at first appear as heresy and misconduct.”
- George Bernard Shaw
“The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms”
- Lao Tzu
Promo of the Day
4 spots from the Weather Channel and 1 from WTHR Indianapolis have a 'take no prisoners' approach to the enemy - treacherous weather! 602communications.com/VideoExamples
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TV News Morphs as Cuts Deepen
Staff cuts at two of the biggest broadcast-television news outfits in the U.S. foreshadow a shift toward cheaper TV news gathering, as broadcast-news groups face shrinking profits and increasing competition from cable and the Internet. ABC News, a division of Walt Disney Co., said this week it would embark on a "fundamental transformation" of its operations, a move that could cut as much as a quarter of its news staff of approximately 1,500, according a person familiar with the matter. The move comes three weeks after CBS Corp.'s news division began to shed more than 6% of its staff of roughly 1,400 and just over three years after General Electric Co.'s NBC News began rounds of stiff cuts.
The shift raises the question of how long news organizations can continue to do more with less. "This is more, done differently," said David Westin, president of ABC News. "I'm finding out, 'Can we thrive in this new world?' " A centerpiece of ABC's plan is to rely more extensively on a new breed of TV journalist who can produce stories using new, digital equipment alone or with much smaller teams. In TV newsrooms, a person who can do the job of both a producer and an editor is sometimes called a "predator."
For decades, network-news divisions were almost the only source of images from the day's events. Anchors like Walter Cronkite were fixtures in tens of millions of American homes. But since the 1980s, broadcasters faced pressure to deliver consistent profit. And now they compete with a geyser of Internet updates as well as nonstop coverage from three, major 24-hour cable-news networks.
More people still watch evening news on NBC, ABC and CBS than on cable, CBS's Sunday night "60 Minutes" remains popular and NBC has seen its evening-news ratings tick up slightly this year. But the three evening newscasts' combined average audience of about 24 million this season is down more than 15% from a decade ago, according to Nielsen Co.
Richard C. Wald, a former top executive at ABC News and NBC News, says the big broadcast networks suffer, in part, from offering a mass-audience product in a news environment that has splintered into niches. "They absolutely must change," said Mr. Wald, noting that Mr. Westin's move to wider use of "one-man-bands" could spread: "The minute he has any success, it will be widely copied," he said.
CBS and ABC are in a dicey position. Neither owns a cable-news network that brings in revenue from monthly cable and satellite-TV bills. Time Warner Inc.'s CNN, News Corp.'s Fox News and NBC News's MSNBC will bring in a combined $1.6 billion in U.S. subscription fees in 2010, according to research firm SNL Kagan. News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal. Those fees have helped NBC News remain less reliant on advertising through the downturn. "I can't underscore enough how important MSNBC is to the overall financial well-being of NBC News," said Steve Capus, president of NBC News. "It enables everything that we do."
The cuts have unleashed a wave of uneasiness in TV newsrooms. Still, some veterans say changes to the costly way broadcast-news divisions operate—gathering footage that is already widely available, for instance—are overdue. CBS said job cuts earlier this month were part of an effort to make "adjustments" to cope with a decline in advertising revenue. "It's just to be more efficient in the way we gather the news," Sean McManus, CBS's president of news and sports, said in an interview at the time.
NBC News went through a round of cuts in 2006, moving MSNBC into NBC's Manhattan headquarters, merging much of its infrastructure into the rest of NBC News. Those cuts, which NBC says amounted to about 5% of news staff, came after Mr. Capus saw costs rising and revenue sinking in 2005. "It was an eye-opening moment to sit there and realize our business was in trouble," Mr. Capus said.
ABC has been experimenting with smaller newsgathering teams in far-flung locations. On late-night show "Nightline," staff sometimes shoot and edit their own material, a practice Mr. Westin cited in announcing his cuts. "Maintaining the quality, or enhancing the quality, but for much less money—I think that is a very viable business model," Mr. Westin said.
NBC News also makes use of several "backpack" reporters. But NBC has no immediate plans to change its mix of traditional- and digital-reporting techniques, Mr. Capus said: "You have to pick your spots."
WSJ
Olympics Favored on West Coast
Sports talk radio hosts, bloggers and media critics lobbed a lot of criticism at NBC for airing the bulk of its Olympic coverage on tape delay in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. But the people in those time zones didn't seem to care. According to 17-day metered-market ratings issued by Nielsen, the Mountain and Pacific time zones both drew higher numbers than the Eastern time zone, which had the lowest rating of all despite airing the live coverage. Mountain averaged an 18.8 household rating for 17 nights of coverage, by far the highest of the four time zones. Central, where coverage of events like figure skating and speed skating also aired live, averaged a 15.4, followed by Pacific at 15.2 and Eastern at 14.8. Event results were available on Twitter, news sites and cable hours before the events aired in Mountain and Pacific time zones. Yet of the 10 markets with the highest 17-day Olympic average, three were on the West Coast and the top two, Salt Lake City and Denver, were in Mountain. It would be foolish to say these numbers are absolute proof that NBC should have used the tape delay. After all, you'd expect Winter Games viewership to be strong in Denver, a skiing stronghold, and Salt Lake, which hosted the Olympics eight years ago. Still, the numbers do support NBC's stance that the media may have overblown the live viewing controversy. The New York Times, ESPN, various ESPN Radio shows and more covered complaints over the lack of live coverage. But NBC's fairly convincing response was hey, people are still watching -- average viewership for these Games was up 20 percent over Turin four years ago.
MediaLife Magazine
Palin on 'Tonight' Trumps Letterman
The second night of Jay Leno's revamped "Tonight Show" soundly beat its competition, boosted in part by a visit from former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, tvbythenumbers.com reports. Leno posted a 1.6 rating in the 18-49 year old demographic versus CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman's" 1.0 rating and the 0.9 rating for ABC's "Nightline." Leno's 1.6 rating matches his re-premiere numbers on Monday. Letterman even boasted his own politically-oriented guest, inviting possible Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to chat.
TV Week
Conan Fans Overrun ‘Tonight’ Show Forum
NBC had to shut down an online “Tonight Show” forum called “things you want Jay to see” after it was overrun by fans of ousted Conan O’Brien, Gawker reports. Some of the three pages of deleted “I’m with Coco” messages were captured by Gawker. http://gawker.com/5484331/nbc-deletes-message-board-overrun-with-conan-separatists-and-a-weird-yale-theater-plug
TV Week
Lorne Michaels has Faith in Conan
"Saturday Night Live" creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels predicted Tuesday night that Conan O'Brien would prevail after his recent departure from "The Tonight Show" and NBC. He also said he is not in a hurry to retire, because he is very engaged in the show and enjoys it. "There will be a time for that," Michaels quipped. "It will be very difficult for me to stop." He also said he feels it is important to keep an old-school variety show on the air as networks nowadays wouldn't launch a new one. "This will be the last of it," he said. Michaels, who used to executive produce "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," said he originally picked the comedian because he was "very smart," "just brilliant" and had an "amazing character." After early struggles, he prevailed, he added. "And I'm sure he will again," Michaels added.
Hollywood Reporter
'Gilligan's Island' Resurfaces for Big Screen
Atlas Entertainment announced today that there will be a big-screen adaptation of the popular 1960's sitcom "Gilligan's Island," reports msnbc.com. The original creator, Sherwood Schwartz, has given his blessing to the Charles Roven and Richard Suckle production. Roven said production could be started early next year, but only after the perfect cast has been chosen. Recently, Schwartz speculated that Michael Cera would be the right actor to play Gilligan.
TV Week
Viacom, Hulu Part Ways
In the first major fracture between television show owners and the wildly popular Hulu.com, Viacom will remove “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” “The Colbert Report” and other Comedy Central programs from the video site next week. The companies said Tuesday evening that they were parting amicably, but Viacom’s decision is a serious loss for Hulu. This week “The Daily Show” is listed as the third-most-watched show on the site, behind “Lost” and “Family Guy.” The decision also highlights the large gulf between the expectations of consumers — who demand a wealth of free and easily accessible content on the Internet — and the media companies, who are seeking a more profitable business model online. “We tried to reach a deal. We got close. We continued to talk even over the weekend. But we could not agree on a price,” said a person involved in the Viacom negotiations who requested anonymity because the process was conducted in private. The three-year-old Hulu dominates the mushrooming market for online full-episode TV viewing, with more than 44 million monthly visitors, according to comScore, the online measurement firm. The site’s monthly video view totals have surged in recent months, from 580 million last September to 1.01 billion last December. But Hulu is unprofitable, according to analysts. The site’s advertising sales staff has struggled at times to keep pace with the torrid growth, and a partial pay model has been discussed by its owners, which include three of the broadcast networks, ABC, NBC and Fox. Laura Martin, an analyst at Needham & Company who has criticized the Hulu business model, said “the content companies continue to experiment with how to monetize their premium content on digital platforms. Hulu is a failed experiment for Viacom.” The severing of ties with Hulu does not represent a strategic shift for Viacom. Comedy Central will continue to stream full episodes of the news satires on TheDailyShow.com and ColbertNation.com. In a good-neighbor role, Hulu will direct users to those sites.
NY Times
Marketers Jittery on Effectiveness of TV Ads
Marketers’ lack of confidence in the effectiveness of television spots is being reflected in smaller TV budgets, according to a fresh joint survey from the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research Inc. The report surveyed over 100 national advertisers whose budgets will stay flat this year; last year they allocated 41 percent of their media budgets to TV, compared with 58 percent in 2008. About 62 percent of the survey’s respondents said that TV ads have grown less effective in the past two years, citing clutter as the biggest challenge to commercial effectiveness. “As the overall marketing landscape is in the midst of a massive shift, so is the iconic medium of television,” said ANA President and CEO Bob Liodice, in a statement. “The standard methods of delivery and measurement need to adapt to what marketers today need: more specificity, greater effectiveness and more detailed measurement. ROI is one of the most crucial aspects of marketing today, and the processes behind TV must be held to the same scrutiny as marketers.”
Biz Journals
Facebook Nears $700M, Heading Up, Report Shows
Facebook revenue is rising rapidly and could top $1 billion this year, according to the online publication Inside Facebook. Facebook does not make financial performance information public, but said last fall that it had become cash flow positive. Facebook would not comment on the report. Inside Facebook estimates the company has been roughly doubling revenue annually, from $150 million in 2007 to between $280 million and $300 million in 2008 and between $600 million and $700 million in 2009. The publication put 2009 performance-based advertising revenue — particularly from social gaming companies like Zynga — at $350 million, brand advertising at $225 million, Microsoft managed advertising at $50 million and virtual goods at $10 million. "We expect that trend to continue for the foreseeable future, making Facebook a multi-billion dollar company within the next few years. The question is becoming how Facebook can hit the inflection point where its revenues increase much more quickly," Inside Facebook states.
Biz Journals
Big Biz Hearts Twitter
Fortune 500 companies got into the Twittering act in a big way last year, according to a study released by the Society for New Communications Research. Thirty-five percent of Fortune 500 corporations had an active Twitter account as of last year (i.e., one with a post within the past 30 days), according to the study. Among the top 100 companies on the roster, 47 percent had a Twitter account. Twenty-two percent of all Fortune 500 companies had a "public-facing corporate blog," and more than eight in 10 of those linked directly to a corporate Twitter account. Four of the top five corporations -- Walmart, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and General Electric -- "consistently post on their Twitter accounts," according to the study, titled "The Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage by America's Largest Companies." (ExxonMobil was the exception.) In a breakdown by industry, 13 of the Fortune 500 insurance companies had an active Twitter account, making that sector the most likely to tweet. Eleven of the food-related companies used Twitter. Elsewhere on the new-media front, the study found 19 percent of Fortune 500 corporations using podcasting and 31 percent using video blogging. The rise in podcasting from the previous year was fairly modest (up from 16 percent). But the rise in video blogging was steep (from 21 percent in 2008). The study did not include comparative data from 2008 for companies' Twitter usage.
AdWeek
Twitter’s Ad Plan: Copy Google
What will Twitter’s long-awaited ad platform look like? Something like Google’s. That’s the general description of Twitter’s plan, according to people who have been briefed by the company.
Here are the very broad strokes:
- Ads will be tied to Twitter searches, in the same way that Google’s original ads were. So a search for, say, “laptop,” may generate an ad for Dell. The ads will only show up in search results, which means users who don’t search for something won’t see them in their regular Twitterstreams.
- The ads will use the Twitter format–140 or fewer characters–and will be distributed via the third-party software and services that use Twitter’s API. The services will have the option of displaying the ads, and Twitter will share revenue with those that do.
- Twitter will work with ad agencies and buyers to seed the program, but plans on moving to a self-serve model like Google’s, down the road.
The caveats: Everyone I’ve talked to cautions that the plans are evolving and that there are plenty of details to work out. Including a launch date, though it seems as if the first half of this year is a very safe bet.
Media Memo
Message From Michael
THE YIN AND YANG OF NEWS: An announcement by ABC News president David Westin that 300 to 400 jobs are being cut out of the 1,400 jobs in the news division, which follows an earlier announcement by CBS News of a six percent cutback in newsroom staffing. An announcement by AOL CEO Tim Armstrong of job cuts there after the spin-off from Time Warner but that none of the more than 500 journalists employed in the AOL newsroom will be affected. A survey by the Society for New Communications Research showing a dramatic jump in only a year in the percentage of journalists using social media tools in their reporting. An announcement by The New York Times that it is partnering with New York University professors and students to launch a hyper-local news site covering the East Village. A study by GfK Roper and commissioned by PBS shows more people trust public television (45%) than any other news operation or even the courts and Congress. A study by comScore on behalf of the Newspaper Association of America showing that newspaper websites are the most visited and most trusted source of online local news with more than half (57%) saying newspaper websites are their number one destination for local information. And, the final twang in the yin and yang – the Federal Communication Commission has extended its deadline for public comment on its upcoming report on the future of the news media from March to May.
The traditional definition of Yin and Yang is of complementary opposites, but this tenet of Chinese philosophy is more complicated than that, positing that (to cite Wikipedia) “seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent… and give rise to each other in turn.” I’m not sure that definition applies to what is happening to news media, any more than the concept of disruptive technology xplains what is happening, but it gives you something to think about. Some more things to think about --
THE DIGITAL DILEMMA: In his memo to the news staff, News president Westin says the digital age has created a ‘revolution’ in the ways people get their news and information, making the business more competitive but also, he says, providing opportunities in how they gather, produce and distribute news. That translates to more ‘digital journalists’, as he terms them – also known as one-man bands, video journalists, backpack journalists. He says there will be extensive training in the ‘new technology’ along with combining of staffs, more use of freelancers and eliminating ‘redundancies’ as they undergo what he calls a “fundamental transformation” – to create (the key quote) “a business model that ensures we will be here for our audiences for many years to come.” It’s an interesting idea (at least to me) that you could do a Google Street View sweep from the one end of Manhattan where Westin was talking to the other end of Manhattan where AOL’s Armstrong was sitting, and you would find the yang of the digital dilemma – pages and pages of Web data tacked to the walls of the AOL newsroom. As reported by Business Week, the folks at AOL use the data to tell their journalists “how well their articles are performing.” The folks at AOL are using the software to determine which articles to write based on the amount of Web traffic they generate. In addition to the 500 journalists, AOL employs 3,000 freelancers who work in a virtual environment, interacting remotely using chat and providing stories through a process called “Seed” in which they’re paid to write stories on topics that have proven popular. Two examples cited in the BusinessWeek article were how to open champagne and best tips for packing. Staffers whose work fetches the most views may even get to share in the profits because, says Armstrong, (and here’s the quote that explains it all) – “audience growth and audience engagement have to be the things that we justify most, off of our journalist investments.”
TRUSTWORTHINESS AND TRUTHINESS: Take your pick. According to the Newspaper Association of America survey, local newspaper websites are deemed the most trustworthy by the public not only for news and information, sports and entertainment, but the all important – online advertising. Local newspaper websites just barely beat out local television websites (34% to 32%) when it came to news, but when it came to local information, newspaper websites trumped local television websites by a wide margin (34% to 23%). It was the same for local sports (30% to 24%) and local entertainment (30% to 23%). But the figure that has newspaper publishers salivating is the margin when it came to local classifieds (43% vs. 13%). Of course, for a little perspective on this, as everybody knows, much of the classified advertising has migrated to major Websites like Yahoo and Craigslist. And for a little more perspective still, reporter Erik Sass notes in Media Daily News that online advertising still only accounts for 10% of newspapers’ total advertising revenue – “after a decade spent building online audiences and advertising programs.” The NAA meanwhile cites the statistics as proof of “newspapers’ successful multiplatform transition.” Meanwhile, the comScore survey for PBS shows that four times as many people (45%) trust PBS as opposed to newspaper publishing companies (11%) and five times as many as cable networks (9%). The percentage that trusts PBS “a great deal” is vastly larger (40%) than second place trustworthy Fox News Channel (29%) and third place CNN (27%) and, even more interesting; fourth place NPR (25%). Even more interesting (to me at least) NPR came in sixth (with 29%) when judged on the question are they “mostly fair” – well behind PBS (40%); but also behind NBC and ABC (33%), CBS (32%) and CNN (31%); but ahead of Fox (25%) and MSNBC (24%) In a somewhat similar vein of justifying the dollars, the PBS report notes that 80% of those surveyed believe money given to PBS by government, corporations and individuals is “money well spent.” And when asked the penetrating question whether the 15% of support PBS receives from the federal government which, the question notes, translates to one dollar per person per year, nearly half (46%) say it is too little.
PERIL AND PROMISE: That’s how one journalist described the impact of social media on the journalism profession in a survey by the Society for New Communication Research. The percentage of journalists using social networking sites has jumped by a quarter (to 70%) in only a year; there was another jump of a quarter in those using Twitter or other micro blogging sites (48%). Two thirds (66%) read blogs and four out of five (80%) say bloggers have become “important opinion-shapers.” The reported noted what it called “a striking disparity” in adoption rates and attitudes toward new communications tools and citizen journalism between the younger and older journalists; although despite this, most (91%) agreed that the new tools and technologies are enhancing journalism. Meanwhile, as noted earlier, the New York Times collaboration with NYU on a “Local East Village” website is only the latest move by the newspaper which claims the title of number one newspaper-owned website. Others include an alliance with the City University of New York for a “local Brooklyn” site, a cooperative with the non-profit Chicago News Cooperative and another cooperative with the non-profit Bay Area News Project.
ACCOUNTABILITY JOURNALISM: No, I have no idea what that term is supposed to mean. Steven Waldman who is heading up the Federal Communication Commission’s study into the future of journalism used it to talk about the “collapse” of traditional business models which he says could bring about “the end of accountability journalism.” Broadcast lawyer and blogger David Oxenford probably has as good a guess as anyone when he says it probably refers to “journalistic sources with some degree of accountability and reliability.” In a surprise appearance at the end of one of the FCC’s open meetings, Waldman went into greater detail about the study’s goal to ‘make sure that communities get the information that they need.’ He said the study will look at all the ways citizens and communities get information and which parts of the population are most at risk of losing their sources of information because of that collapse. It is probably indicative of the controversy surrounding the inquiry that one FCC commissioner (Copps) called it central to the needs of the country while another commissioner (McDowell) questioned whether any government action is necessary at all. Waldman makes the point that in the digital era “news and information” isn’t just journalism but all information consumers get from all sources about schools, crime, public health, natural disasters “or other issues that affect them dearly.” And he says the starting point for the inquiry is the First Amendment because “a free press, independent of government control, is a foundational principle of our democracy.” He urges people to join in the discussion because “you and your families have a direct stake.” If you want to join in the discussion (in the two months left), go to website http://reboot.fcc.gov/futureofmedia
PARENTAL DISCRETION ADVISED: As the headline implies, this is not a section for the sensitive. But in keeping with my never-ending question to keep you abreast of the latest trends and cutting edge developments, here are two R-rated websites you should know about… and maybe visit. But remember the warning. The first is shitmydadsays.tumblr.com. It is a twitter site by a 28-year-old who moved back into his 74-year-old father’s house. Pearls of wisdom range from, (quote) “I hate paying bills… son, don’t say ‘me too.’ I didn’t say that looking to relate to you. I said it instead of ‘go away.’ Or, (quote) “Son, no one gives a shit about all the things your cell phone does. You didn’t invent it. You just bought it. Anybody can do that.” Here’s the kicker – CBS has hired William Shatner to do a TV pilot based on the twitters. And, no, I’m not making that up. It strikes me that it’s sort of like the old sitcom Sanford and Son, except with Redd Foxx using some of the salty language he used in his stage performances. The other website is chatroulette.com, which is a random video conferencing site which links you to strangers around the world… sometimes weird, sometimes pornographic, sometimes interesting. Trust me; you’re going to be hearing a lot about this one. Some are calling it the ‘next Twitter.’
Michael Castengera is an instructor at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia AND President of Media Strategies and Tactics Inc., a consulting firm that works with all media but primarily broadcasting. You can visit his website at MediaConsultant.tv.
Scrappy Crew of 'Good Morning America' Puts On a News Show
Saying they were bored and there was nothing fun to do in the ABC studios, the spunky crew of Good Morning America announced "really big plans" Thursday to write and broadcast their very own television news show all by themselves.
The cute little program, which will be produced without any help from any grown-ups, and which will feature important news, interviews with funny people, and also weather, will air Friday at 7 a.m.
"We're gonna write our own scripts and read from 'em and tell everyone in the whole world about stuff that's happening," said George Stephanopoulos, who led the plucky band of lovable scamps and had everybody line up to try their best newscaster voice. "I'm gonna talk about the president."
Added Stephanopoulous, "You'll see. We'll be just like a real news show."
According to ABC sources, the scrappy Good Morning America crew has already begun preparing for their big morning news show, with Robin Roberts organizing the group of happy-go-lucky rascals into teams and ordering them to borrow fancy suits from their parents and gather up as much news as they could find.
Juju Chang was reportedly placed in charge of making sure the boy anchors combed their hair nicely to the side.
Robin Roberts practices her part over and over and over until she's the best in the world.
"This is going to be so much fun!" said Sam Champion, 48, who looked just like a little man in his blue grown-up suit and told reporters that he would be interviewing zookeeper Jack Hanna on the show. "I already have all of my questions ready, like five thousand hundred of them, and they said I could use a microphone when I talk about all the different animals."
"But I have to be careful, also, when I pet the little baby koalas," Champion added. "They're delicate!"
While certain segments have already been confirmed—including the Hanna interview and a weather piece in which Chang will talk about the clouds and sun and point to pictures of the clouds and the sun, much of the two-hour broadcast has yet to be determined.
According to sources, Stephanopoulos has decided to fill some of that time by having Robin Roberts file a report on a suicide- bombing attack that killed 23 in Pakistan this month, but told her not to worry if she did not understand what it was about, stressing that it was more important for her to make a sad face when talking about it.
"I'm going to do a good job and talk about very important news events for probably over a whole minute," Roberts said. "I'll also say the words nice and clear so people can understand me, and I'm not going to giggle even once, I swear."
With only minutes to showtime and Sam Champion needing to use the bathroom, many at ABC remained skeptical that the plucky band of ne'er-do-wells has what it takes to make their broadcast work. Still, some are pulling for them.
"They might not be the most capable or the most informed, but I'll be darned if they aren't adorable trying so hard," ABC News president David Westin said. "Robin and George especially were just as cute as a button when they came marching into my office with all of their grown-up ideas. They seemed so excited about putting on a real news show."
Executive producer Tom Cibrowski agreed.
"It was absolutely precious how they wanted to do a piece about the Haitian earthquake right before a segment on low-fat additions to ice cream sundaes," Cibrowski said. "If anyone else tried that it would probably come off as insulting or in poor taste, but you can't get mad at these little guys. They don't even know what they're doing up there."
"Everyone should make sure and tell them they did a good job," Cibrowski continued. "And that they should be proud of themselves."
Good Morning America is expected to be viewed by 4.68 million real, actual people.
The Onion
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The Marketing Ideanet is a free idea sharing newsletter published by 602 Communications. We are a TV training and consulting company that specializes in improving front-line news and marketing skills. Check out thousands of cutting edge examples at our web site. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
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Graeme Newell
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