Network Newsing

The NYTimes' Elizabeth Jensen writes about the changes coming to PBS' long-running nightly newscast, "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer."

Mr. Lehrer, who will turn 75 next Tuesday, isn't stepping down. But in September the program will be retitled "PBS NewsHour" and return to a two-anchor format, which it had until 1995, when Robert MacNeil left. Linda Winslow, the executive producer of "NewsHour," said the changes will be made for a simple reason: "What we were trying to accomplish was a more engaging program."

Jensen reports that Lehrer will be joined by one of three co-anchors from the show's current team: Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff or Jeffrey Brown. Winslow is quick to add, "This is not a succession plan in disguise." Having two anchors will "shake things up a little bit," says Lehrer. The show will also add a newsreader, much like the broadcast network morning shows.

The one-hour show will also be formatted into segments for those who can't, or don't watch all the way through. Winslow says, "Each piece has to be individual and watchable." Jensen reports the show will also merge its online and broadcast news desks, and send correspondents Margaret Warner and Ray Suarez into the field more often.

"Newspapers are thinning, and television has its own crisis," says Lehrer. "I became a fanatic about the idea that those of us who are in the business of serious journalism, we have to do more."

David Bauder of The Associated Press talks to a member of each network news organization about President Obama's first 100 days and recent polls which look at how the current administration has been covered:

ABC World News EP Jon Banner: "My eyes are always open to everything, including studies like these. I do not program the news by studies or by anything else, for that matter. I program it by the news of the day and what our journalistic guts tell us."

CBS Evening News EP Rick Kaplan: "Everybody, including Republicans, would have to say that his first 100 days have been great...Across his four years, or eight years, whatever it is, there will be plenty for people on all sides to not like or love. It will balance itself out inevitably."

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams: "It was historic. It has changed, fundamentally and forever, the poster of the presidents in front of the classroom. That accounts for the quantity of coverage, and we're judged on the quality of the coverage every day, as it should be."

The nonpartisan research group Center for Media and Public Affairs along with California's Chapman University released a study that found the nightly newscasts devoted 27 hours, 44 minutes to Pres. Obama's presidency in his first 50 days. That compares to 7 hours, 42 minutes for Pres. George W. Bush and 15 hours, 2 minutes for Pres. Bill Clinton during the first 50 days of their first terms.

Not only has Obama gotten more coverage, but that coverage has been more positive than his predecessors.

On the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening newscasts, 58% of all evaluations of the president and his policies have been favorable, while 42% were unfavorable. That compares with 33% positive in the comparable period of Bush's tenure and 44% positive for Pres. Clinton.

Who gave Pres. Obama the most airtime? And where does Fox fit in?

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• NBC Nightly News led with two stories on tax day. Lee Cowan reported on the tea parties while Savannah Guthrie reported on the White House message of middle class tax cuts. In his open, Brian Williams said the tea parties were, "organized on the Internet and by some cable TV personalities."

• ABC's World News made it the third story. First a soundbite from Pres. Obama and a Dan Harris story on the tea parties which were, "cheered on by Fox News and talk radio," Harris explained. The Charles Gibson broadcast led with two stories on the pirate attacks - Jim Sciutto in Kenya with the crew of the Maersk Alabama and David Muir with a story on the attack of another U.S. ship.

• CBS Evening News led with tax day - a soundbite from Pres. Obama, a live picture of a rally in Arlington, Texas and a tea party story from Dean Reynolds. Reynolds referenced, "a fistful of right-ward leaning Websites and commentators...embraced the cause," while showing Neil Cavuto and Glenn Beck at two different rallies.

Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric are anchoring their nightly newscasts from Great Britain tonight where Pres. and Mrs. Obama arrived a few hours ago.

Two of the broadcasts, ABC World News and CBS Evening News, led with stories on the global economy, while NBC Nightly News led with a story from the U.S. - "the new General Motors." Williams is anchoring from NBC's London bureau, Gibson at ABC's with a view of Big Ben behind him, while Couric is framed by London's Tower Bridge.

Expect a lot of coverage on the cable channels overnight and into tomorrow. Pres. Obama has meetings and an early morning (ET) news conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a reception with Queen Elizabeth in the afternoon and G-20 events throughout the day.

With so many facets to the larger story of this dismal economy (jobs lost, stocks tanked, banks bailed out, states stimulated) there is more of the kind of news to go around that outrages the little guy — the kind of person who loves nothing more than to go home, plunk him/herself in front of a TV and watch how banking fatcats and billionaire crooks get theirs.

The NYTimes' Brian Stelter writes that they they are the new Paris and Britney of the news cycle (although there's room enough for Anna Nicole today).

Tracking the private jets, lavish junkets and other trappings of what the ABC correspondent Brian Ross calls "corporate royalty" are now full-time jobs for reporters at the network news divisions. Next week NBC News will show a three-part investigative series in prime time titled "Inside the Financial Fiasco" and reported by Chris Hansen, the "Dateline NBC" correspondent who hosted the network's "To Catch a Predator" franchise for years.

For the reporters, the heightened interest in corporate spending means long hours staking out places like Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, an airport that is frequently used for private travel into New York. On the last Friday in February, the ABC producer Asa Eslocker was on assignment outside the airport, armed with a miniature camera and searching for a corporate jet belonging to a troubled insurance company.

The story continues here...

The first woman to anchor both a morning and an evening network newscast is betting on the mornings. ABC's Barbara Walters and 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft were part of a S.I. Newhouse School of Communications breakfast panel in New York City this morning.

Portfolio.com's Jeff Bercovici was there for the discussion billed as "The Art of the Interview." But the conversation included the future of the TV News business as well. When asked about it, Walters predicted:

I think the only programs that will still be there as they are now in 10 years are the morning shows. Everything else you can TiVo and watch later or read about on the internet.

And what does Walters think about the disappearing divide between news and opinion?

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Andrew Tyndall of the Tyndall Report has compiled his 2008 Year in Review, and not surprisingly the top story on network news was the presidential election.

Actually, it was the top three stories. Tyndall breaks down the stories by candidate — 745 stories about Barack Obama, 531 about John McCain and 288 about Hillary Clinton. Of the three evening newscasts, NBC Nightly News had the most "balance" when it came to the number of stories on Obama and McCain.

Economic stories made up the next three, with the bailout at #4, gas prices at #5 and the stock market at #6.

The top story of 2007, the Iraq War, finished #7 in 2008. The networks produced less than a quarter of the number stories about the war in 2008 (434) than they did in 2007 (1,888), according to Tyndall.

Click continued for a breakdown of the most used reporters (and a list of the Top 20)...

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ABC is about to announce that it will expand "World News with Charles Gibson" to an hour Monday night. Last week CBS and NBC announced expanded Evening News and Nightly News broadcasts on the night before the election.

For ABC, Charlie Gibson will anchor Monday's broadcast from the Times Square studios, where ABC's election night will also originate.

The network anchors are finishing up a week that has taken them to three states in four days: Louisiania, Minnesota and California. The Big 3 emceed last night's Stand up to Cancer event. USA today called it, "an unusual alliance" since ABC, CBS and NBC also aired the one hour special "with their respective news anchors Charles Gibson, Katie Couric and Brian Williams participating. All did their evening newscasts from the Kodak Theatre, also the home of the Academy Awards."

And to get a sense of the star status that comes with being a network anchor, check out the video below of Couric, after she, Gibson and Williams finished a series of interviews promoting the event Wednesday night at the RNC.

...and after the jump, the anchors pause for a photo op with the network publicists who organized Wednesday's interviews, including Sandy Genelius and Leigh Farris of CBS, Lauren Kapp of NBC and Jeffrey Schneider of ABC.

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