The Winds Of Change

We’ve been asked many times over the course of the past weeks why we’ve not covered the speculation and rumors about the future of CBS News. The answer, simply, is that we’re not here to engage in idle chat about who’s in or who’s out, who’s up or who’s down. We leave that to the professionals at Page Six.

But these are momentous times for the news division and since there are now real changes taking place that will have real impact on its products, we would be remiss to ignore it. That seems to be in line with our basic mission to help bring more transparency to CBS News. In the days and weeks to come, much will be written and many questions asked. We’ll be covering that discussion and some of those developments as they happen. First, I wanted to provide a snapshot of the initial reaction at the news division and some of the questions being asked.

Those in the news ranks are encouraged that incoming president Sean McManus is a trusted confidant of CBS Chairman Les Moonves and an executive who oversaw the return of the NFL to the network and made the sports division into a “Tiffany” entity in the CBS tradition. McManus, they hope, may be in a position to marshal more resources for news and improve quality. While he is not a “newsman,” he is of CBS and respectful of the tradition, some believe. The “Roone Arledge model” is a phrase on the lips of many, a nod to the former president of ABC Sports who went to the news division and took it to great heights.

There are concerns, however, that McManus is not a newsman and does not come from what many would consider a journalistic tradition. There are also worries that the news division – for the first time ever – does not have a dedicated president (with McManus wearing that hat for both the sports and news divisions). And most are anxious to see what, if any, changes will be made in other top management positions.

In all, there seems to be a measure of relief about the change, that the new president comes from a part of CBS that is closer in many ways to news than other parts. In short, a lot of folks who had been holding their breath in preparation for the more radical changes that had been rumored, let out a long exhale.

But questions remain, such as:

-- Is the lack of a president dedicated only to news a demotion of sorts for the division?
-- How can one person run two big empires?
-- Will this mean the "Evening News" will be in limbo for even longer?
-- Does McManus have a mandate to lighten up the news?