Sure, it's a leftist show, but it reminds me of the older age of journalism. I don't watch it much anymore, mostly because I'm blogging, or watching Fox News or sports, although I catch a segment on YouTube now and then.
At the New York Times, "Venerable Format of ‘NewsHour’ Struggles With New Era of Media":
For many of its 38 years, the sober studio-interview format of the “PBS NewsHour” has served the program well, drawing viewers and corporate underwriters alike. But with a deep financing crisis forcing layoffs and other cutbacks this week, some public television employees believe that format — and a general unwillingness to embrace the digital realities facing journalism — may be jeopardizing the program’s future.More at the link.
“NewsHour” came under criticism in a confidential May 2012 report commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the program’s major supporters in recent years, that concluded bluntly that the program needed to aggressively “modernize news gathering production.”
The report stressed the need for a major reorganization that included developing new digital platforms and clarifying its editorial focus. It also said more “decision-making transparency” was needed from MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, the profit-making company that co-produces the program for PBS. (The company is controlled by Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil, its founding anchors. Washington public television station WETA is the other producer.)
The pressures facing “NewsHour” are not unique. “What every traditional media organization is confronted with today is how to change profoundly to reflect the revolution in how people consume media,” said a former CNN bureau chief, Frank Sesno, now director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. But many organizations have moved more quickly to adapt, equipping producers with inexpensive video cameras to reduce news gathering costs, and investing in online and mobile platforms.
Mr. Sesno said that he “desperately” wants “NewsHour” to succeed. “They’ve got to figure out how to do the deeper dive and bring people along with them,” he said, by developing more of a conversation with the audience and becoming a “multimedia information experience. You can’t just be a TV show anymore.”
Well, everything's shaking out. The fact that I don't watch the show anymore is indicative of the problem. It's hard to sit down, around dinner time, and consume an hour-long news segment that's sort of fuddy-duddy in approach. I like the old-school vibe, but Frank Sesno's write: You gotta bring in people with you, make it somewhat interactive, and engage your constituency.
In any case, at the video is Kashmir Hill, who's a privacy blogger at Forbes, and Victor Mayer-Schönberger, who has the the May-June cover article at Foreign Affairs, "The Rise of Big Data: How It's Changing the Way We Think About the World."
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