Hartman Lays Out His Vision For A New "Evening News" Era That Begins Today
The "CBS Evening News" kicks off a new era today with a new executive producer, Rome Hartman.
(CBS)
I started off asking him what changes we may notice in the short term and he told me:
"I hope that what viewers will notice is that we're more original in breaking news and emphasizing beat coverage. There are a lot of great stories out there and I want to be out in front on all of them. Realistically, we're not going to get every single get and we're not going to break every story but I really want to be out front on the beats – on stories in Washington (whether its about terrorism or the eavesdropping investigations or the Abramoff investigation) or medical coverage or business coverage. I really want correspondents and producers on the beats to feel challenged and encouraged to break news. And I hope that will be a tangible thing people notice. Not to say that they haven't been doing it before, but I just hope we can charge people up to do more of what they've been doing."It seems to me that part of nailing a story is being able to expend time on the air to explain it, so will we perhaps see stories on the broadcast that are more indepth and run longer than the usual 1-2 minutes?
"Sure. But I want it to be the case that the story dictates, rather than any format. To the degree that we can, in every part of the broadcast, whether it's the first section or the back of the book, stories ought to be in the form and the length that the narrative and the information call for rather than fit into some preconceived format or slot. You can't do ten minute stories because you've got too much ground to cover. But there might be a day, and it certainly won't be immediate, when we give a quick little capsule of the day's events and then say, 'we're going to focus tonight on a particular subject,' whether it's health care or pensions or something like that. But we won't do it to format it in a certain way, we'll do it because we have stories that are good enough and important enough and told well enough to justify that kind of thing."In today's media environment, what can a 30-minute "Evening News" broadcast provide that isn't available everywhere else, all day long, on-demand?
"In a word, context. We all live in a world where we're constantly inundated and bombarded with information and I think the 'Evening News' ought to attempt to put some of that information into context and to sift and sort and to be a digest of the day. And that doesn't mean a headline service. That means a sensible collection of stories that help people understand this crazy world. I often feel, especially when there are big stories, that I can watch cable news or listen to the radio or read Internet news sites all day long and still feel kind of disconnected to the events, still not feel like I have my head wrapped around it."Does that "context" include telling the audience when you don't know something or don't know the whole story?
"What you're talking about is transparency, what you're talking about is being honest with the viewers and saying, 'you know what, this is still going a mile-a-minute, this particular event.' You can use the mine story from last week. That was a story fraught with tragedy from the beginning but also confusion and emotion and I think that sometimes what we need to be doing is say to people, 'this is more than we can completely synthesize right now but we're going to do our best to tell you where things stand now,' and maybe step back a little bit and talk about maybe even why we don't know on a given point. People do expect us to be authoritative and that's what we want to be on a given news story but we ought to work as hard as we can to tell what we do know and provide context and be transparent about what we don't know."We've all seen the stories speculating about who might be the next anchor of the "Evening News." Without going into personalities, how important is that position in today's environment?
"I think it's really important because that person is, to a greater degree than anyone else, the face of the broadcast and I think people care about not just the content of the stories but who they get their news from. I do think it's a big deal. Whether it's more or less important than it used to be, I don't know. When I think about CBS News, my first thought is about the quality and vibrancy of the reporting. But I also think about Walter Cronkite, I think about Edward R. Murrow, I think about Dan Rather, these are the great figures of the news division. And I think about Bob Schieffer now. The tenor and the tone and just the way you kind of receive your news changes depending on who the anchor is."And how important is that person to your job. Does it change your approach or does it mostly impact how viewers are receiving the news?
"One of the things about being a leader is you have to learn to work effectively how to work with a variety of people and personalities and figure out their strengths and interests and also how to argue with them. I want this place to be an idea factory and every anchor that CBS has ever had, including the one we have now, comes in every day with ideas – full of ideas. And the next one will too. And how we shape those ideas, toss them around and shape them into a broadcast every day is a huge part of my job. So, who the workers in the idea factory are really changes the way it works."There is no shortage of media criticism these days, especially in the blogosphere, from charges of ideological bias to claims of corporate bias. How much do you pay attention to all of that, how much should media organizations care about it and how does it impact your thinking?
"If I spent all day reading the blogs about the news media, I wouldn't have time to put a show together. It's a huge landscape. I think we need to be aware of what people think of us, not just in the blogosphere but all over the place. We need to be cognizant of the way we're perceived and certainly when there are substantive questions raised, either about our stories or questions of bias or so forth, we need to pay attention to them, take them seriously and see if there's any substance there. It would be silly to dismiss that."How do you approach ratings? Obviously, you pay attention to them but how big a part do they play in decision-making?
"We want to win. The reason we do this is we want a lot of people to watch what we do and to watch CBS News, so of course we pay attention to those things. But do the ratings dictate story selection and that kind of thing? No. We want to do as good of a job as we can and have our stories and our broadcast be sensible and relevant and matter to people and matter to the issues that are important in everybody's lives and I think the ratings will reflect that if we do it well."Some "pure" news folks might say that ratings should have no place in the process.
"I think that's a misnomer because what you're saying there is, I know what's best, I know what people should have. If we've learned anything from the technological explosion of the last decade, we've learned that that's a fallacy. We can't dictate to people. We have to make news judgments every day and we're not ever going to surrender our news judgment, but we can't sit in our little fishbowl and say this is what America needs to hear today and we don't really care what they care about. That's arrogance beyond arrogance. Ratings reflect whether people feel like they're getting information they want to hear and that is relevant to them so of course they're important."Hartman struck a similar tone in a message he sent to the news division last Friday. Here are some excerpts of that message:
"I want to break news and be relentlessly original. From the opening headlines to the closing credits, I want the CBS 'Evening News' to demand to be noticed; in the next day's New York Times, sure, but even more around supper tables and water coolers all over the country. At the top of the broadcast, I want to hear Bob Scheiffer say 'exclusive,' and our correspondents say 'CBS News has learned…' as often as possible, without an ounce of hype or over-statement. I want to reinvigorate our beat coverage; we shouldn't just cover the beats … we should own them."
"I want to play offense every day ... and to WIN. I want us to operate with absolute integrity, and to respect our competitors, but I want to beat them, and make them know they've been beaten fair and square."
"I want our reporting to be deep, and thorough, and precise. I want it to express the natural curiosity that informs all good journalism. I want our newsgathering process to be honest and direct and transparent; to display toughness where it's called for, and empathy and compassion toward story subjects where that's called for. I want our reporting to be fair, and to represent and respect different points of view. Our newsroom and bureaus ought to have an absolute orthodoxy of reporting standards (read the book lately?), but absolutely no orthodoxy of opinion or belief."
"I want us all to grasp the enormous opportunity in front of us. Many people talk about the erosion of audience for all of the network evening newscasts, and wonder about their relevance going forward. But I believe that if we can provide a smart, lively, stimulating 'digest of the day,' and create a genuine feedback loop through which we can listen and respond to our audience, we have an opportunity to make the CBS Evening News much more relevant to many more Americans."In his e-mail, Hartman also gave an indication of how he views the changing landscape of news delivery and consumption:
"We must get on board the technological train that is leaving the television news station. This is a time of turmoil and uncertainty. … Who will watch us? How and when and on what device will they watch us? How will newsgathering change? We can treat this uncertainty either as a threat to be resisted, or as an opportunity to be exploited. Let's do the latter. Let's work in real and full partnership with the dot-com folks and the v-cast folks and the 'who-the-heck-understands-what-she-just-said-about-the-digital-future' folks. It's happening, and it's cool, and if we're open and creative, we will find exciting new methods, outlets, and audiences for what we love to do."