Felix Gillette

Earlier this week, we wrote about heavy cuts that CBS News made to its Tel Aviv bureau shortly before the outbreak of war in Gaza.

The layoffs come at a time when just about everyone in the media is suffering from a serious downturn in advertising.

So how much money will CBS News save by reducing a once bustling bureau down to a bare-bones staff, which will henceforth consist of a bureau chief, Gaby Silon, one cameraman, one editor-technician and one researcher-producer based in the West Bank? 

According to a source with knowledge of the CBS budget, in recent years, CBS News has spent roughly $4.2 to $4.3 million dollars annually on the Tel Aviv bureau.  read more »

On Wednesday night, MSNBC political prizefighter Chris Matthws told his staff in a meeting that he will not be running for a seat in the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in 2010, according to reports in The New York Times, Politico, and TVNewser.

From The Times:

Mr. Matthews declined to comment last night, as did executives form NBC News. But one executive said that discussions with Mr. Matthews for a new contract to remain on 'Hardball' were continuing.

Encyclopedic TV News critic Andrew Tyndall recently published his annual year in review, in which, among other things, he totals up all the air time racked up over the past year by correspondents on the network evening newscasts.

This year's big winner? Andrea Mitchell! 

According to Mr. Tyndall's calculations, NBC's Ms. Mitchell pulled off a lopsided victory (355 minutes) over the reigning 2007 champion, ABC's Jake Tapper (330 minutes). CBS' Dean Reynolds (who was a no-show in 2007's top 20) rocketed up the charts with a strong showing in '08, finishing third (262 minutes).  read more »

Shortly after 1:30 a.m. on the night of Dec. 29, CBS News foreign correspondent Mark Phillips stood on a rooftop, overlooking the city of Tel Aviv. Lights from the city’s skyline flickered behind him. Through an earpiece, he listened to anchor Maggie Rodriguez, who was sitting in a studio in New York, filling in for Katie Couric on the CBS Evening News.

“The White House accuses Hamas of provoking Israel by repeatedly firing its own rockets into Israeli territory,” Ms. Rodriguez was saying. “Mark Phillips went to the front lines along the Gaza-Israel border.”

Three minutes later, the camera on the rooftop went live.  read more »

Howard Kurtz is reporting in The Washington Post today that CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been offered the job of Surgeon General of the United States.

From the article:

Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer.

When reached for comment today, Gupta did not deny the account but declined to comment.

Andrew Kirtzman, the former NY1 and WCBS-2 political reporter, has landed an advance of more than $250,000 from the Harper imprint of Harper Collins to write a book about the Bernard Madoff scandal, Keith Kelly reports today in the New York Post.

Mr. Kirtzman, who previously wrote "Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City," left WCBS-2 back in April--apparently, one of the growing class of experienced newsmen and women let go by local stations in New York over the past year.

"Experience for a long time in this business was an asset," David Diaz, a former award-winning reporter for WNBC, who now teaches journalism at CUNY,  read more »

Today NBC News named Chuck Todd as the network's chief White House correspondent--a position previously occupied by the new moderator of Meet the Press David Gregory. Mr. Todd will be joined on the beat by Savannah Guthrie. He will retain the title of political director of NBC News and has picked up a third title to boot: contributing editor to Meet the Press.

From the release:

"Chuck truly made his mark in the 2008 Presidential election season where he offered unmatched political analysis. His objective, smart, real reporting has been honed through the years in Washington and makes him uniquely qualified to lead our White House coverage team," said [NBC News President Steve] Capus. "Savannah also emerged in 2008 as one of our primary go-to reporters. Hard-charging, dedicated and resourceful, she has earned a great reputation and the respect of her peers."

Today, Politico's Mike Allen reports that Nickelodeon is gearing up to cover its first presidential inauguration in January.

Why the sudden interest in politics from the children's network?

From Mr. Allen's Playbook:

The station's young viewers are particularly interested in the process because Barack and Michelle Obama's daughters, Malia and Sasha, are squarely in Nick's demographic, she said. Nick reporters covered the primary this year for the first time (another online poll found kids selecting Obama and McCain as the nominees before Super Tuesday) and went to the Democratic and Republican party conventions. Republicans didn't allow Nick TV reporters on their convention floor; the Democrats did.

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In recent months, TV stations and networks have been laying off and buying out correspondents, producers, editors and anchors at a dizzying rate. During the second week in December, CNN let go Henry Mauldin, the cable news network’s talent-development chief—a move that seemed to be a grim omen for that particular caste of TV executives who make their living scouting new talent. After all, who needs headhunters if you’re cutting back your head count? As the New York Post noted the other day, “With the TV industry doing more firing than hiring, the networks’ in-house talent hunters have had nothing to do.  read more »

MSNBC confirmed in a  release today that David Shuster will be taking over as anchor of the 6 p.m. hour, a slot vacated by newly minted Meet the Press moderator David Gregory.

Mr. Shuster had been filing in for Mr. Gregory in recent weeks and on Sunday Brian Stelter of The New York Times reported that the cable news channel was on the verge of naming Mr. Shuster the anchor of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

"After six years working with MSNBC primetime, I'm humbled by the opportunity to host my own show, and honored to join a line-up that includes Chris, Keith, and Rachel," said Mr. Shuster in a statement today. "As I transition into my own show, I'm particularly grateful to Chris for his support and encouragement during my years at 'Hardball' and now. I'm thrilled to get to work."  read more »

Today, CNN executives announced a series of changes in how the cable news network will be deploying reporters in Washington, D.C.

From the press release:

Ed Henry, who has provided comprehensive coverage of the Obama transition, becomes senior White House correspondent after covering the past two years of the George W. Bush White House and spending two years as CNN's congressional correspondent. Suzanne Malveaux, who distinguished herself with exceptional coverage of the Obama presidential campaign and reported a two-hour documentary on the president-elect, returns to the White House. She will also serve as a primary substitute anchor for The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Boston bureau chief and correspondent Dan Lothian, who reported extensively from the campaign trail in both 2004 and 2008, will become a White House correspondent as well.  read more »

Yesterday, Steve Krakauer of TVNewser reported that as of January 12th, Fox News' 9 p.m. show Hannity & Colmes will be renamed Hannity (reflecting the recent decision on the behalf of longtime co-host Alan Colmes to step down from his co-anchor chair).

Last night, '80s radio staples Hall & Oates appeared on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where the two-man band offered a musical tribute to Mr. Colmes.

"Anytime you need a token liberal," they sang. "Nothing but a body to fill the chair."

"The barest shadow of a person," they harmonized. "Alan Colmes is always there."

In the current issue of Men's Journal, Greg Veis provides a complex portrait of CNN's man in Iraq, War Correspondent Michael Ware. (This comes via The Huffington Post's Media vertical.)

At one point in the piece, Mr. Ware describes to the reporter a firefight he captured on film in Fallujah in November 2004:

Ware believes he recorded the perfect war experience that night, a snapshot you can get only from terrifying proximity. He dreams of renting out a theater and subjecting an audience to it in full surround sound; that way people would know what it’s really like over there. 'It’s my firm belief that we need to constantly jar the sensitivities of the people back home,' he says. 'War is a jarring experience. Your kids are living it out, and you’ve inflicted it upon 20-odd million Iraqis. And when your brothers and sons and mates from the football team come home, and they ain’t quite the same, you have an obligation to sit for three and a half minutes and share something of what it’s like to be there.'

New York's best TV-based newspaper aggregator has jumped into the crowded world of online newspaper aggregation.

This week, Pat Kiernan, the popular morning anchor on NY1, who has made a franchise out of dryly critiquing New York's newspapers on the air every morning, has launched a new Web site called Pat's Papers. (The site's already been spotted by Gothamist and New York Magazine's Daily Intel blog.)

Here's the description:

Pat’s Papers is a carefully edited collection of US news headlines delivered each weekday morning. We cut through the clutter of the news choices on the Web to deliver a summary of stories that span the entire news spectrum – from international news to domestic politics to science to gossip.

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On Friday, Dec. 5, a crowd of anchors, reporters, producers and executives from New York’s WNBC-4 was gathering in the long early-morning shadow of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree for its annual taping of a holiday singalong that has served for years now as the station’s local promotional holiday-season piece.

Historically, the singalongs have been festive occasions. But in the dark days of 2008, every office get-together can become fraught with fear and anxiety. Friday’s ritual song of holiday gratitude was no exception.

It’s been a rough year at the station, and as the group multiplied, the stars who were showing up—like longtime anchor Chuck Scarborough—was this year attracting less interest than who wasn’t.  read more »

When agent Richard Leibner’s phone was ringing off the hook one night last week, everyone was asking him the same thing: Was his longtime client David Gregory the next host of Meet the Press, or wasn’t he?

He called back, telling reporters he could neither confirm nor deny the report that first appeared on the Huffington Post.

Perhaps this was because his agency, N. S. Bienstock, wasn’t representing Mr. Gregory on the deal. So who exactly was aiding the ambitions of NBC’s robo-newsman?

A lot of people at the network thought Mr. Gregory had gone for the legendary beltway firepower of Robert Barnett, who has represented everyone from Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to Cokie Roberts and, yes, the late, great Tim Russert.  read more »

On Monday afternoon, NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker appeared at the UBS 36th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan, where he delivered the day's keynote address to a banquet hall of lunching media entrepreneurs, investors, and bankers.

Over the course of an extensive Q & A session, Mr. Zucker spoke at length about the various ongoing challenges of "monetizing content" in an increasingly digital age. He said he was bullish about the future prospects of the media industry. But acknowledged that times were particularly hard right now in advertising and that, as a result, he is currently operating with a "safety first" mentality.  read more »

This morning, writing on his blog for ABC News, George Stephanopoulos offered some advice to his new rival on Sunday mornings, David Gregory, whom NBC News just named as the new moderator of Meet the Press.

Under the heading, "Ten Things David Gregory Needs to Know," Mr. Stephanopoulos, the moderator of ABC's This Week, offered this gem to Mr. Gregory: "Rapping with Karl Rove is a guaranteed bump during sweeps."

Read the rest here. 

The seemingly epic search for Tim Russert's replacement as the next long-term moderator of Meet the Press is finally over. This morning, after an interview with President Elect Barack Obama, interim moderator Tom Brokaw welcomed David Gregory into the studio and, over the course of a five-minute segment, officially handed the show off to the network's erstwhile Chief White House Correspondent.

"I've thought a lot about what it means to success--succeed somebody like Tim Russert," said Mr. Gregory. "I'm not Tim. But along with this great team, I can just work real hard to make him proud."

"Part of the deal is that you can no longer break up Washington parties by doing your drop-dead imitation of me," said Mr. Brokaw.

"I got that memo very carefully," said Mr. Gregory.

But wait, there's more! At the end of a week of intense laying-off in television, the Media Mob has learned from several sources at the network that ABC executives are considering cuts to the news division. The focus would be on a slimming down of political units the network bulked up during the presidential campaign.

Rumors about the cuts have been circulating for weeks now around the ABC News offices, but the rumors have numbers: The cuts could affect as many as 35 staffers and would take effect in the new year.

In recent days, a number of other media companies with large television divisions have moved to reduce their staffing costs.  read more »

Yesterday, Chris Ariens of TVNewser broke the news that CNN was letting go veteran correspondent Miles O'Brien and several veteran producers as part of a broader dismantling of the network's science, space, environment and technology division.

"Now that the bulk of our environmental coverage is offered through the Planet in Peril franchise, which is part of the AC360 program, there is no need for a separate unit," a CNN spokesperson told Mr. Ariens.

"In television news, a nearly 17-year stint at one shop is more than just a good run — it is an epoch," Mr. O'Brien said in a prepared statement.

Afterwards, a number of writers, including some former CNN veterans, criticized the decision.  read more »

As we reported recently, CNBC is on the verge of making significant cuts.

And today, Broadcasting & Cable reports that the cable business news network will soon be losing one prominent staffer: Josh Howard, the vice president of the network's long form unit.

From the article:

Howard's contract expires next week and with cuts looming at CNBC, he declined to seek a new one.

His departure comes as the long form unit celebrates its third Emmy - and the third in CNBC's 19-year history - awarded Tuesday at the 6th annual business and financial news Emmys.

Howard came to CNBC three years ago after a lengthy career at CBS News came to an abrupt end over the 60 Minutes II report about President Bush's Vietnam era service in the Texas Air National Guard.

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Today, in Politico, Michael Calderone and Josh Kraushaar provide the most in-depth story to date about the state of Chris Matthews’ political ambitions.

From the article:

Chris Matthews is dead serious about running for the Senate in Pennsylvania — and is shopping for a house in the state and privately discussing quitting MSNBC as proof of his intense interest, according to NBC colleagues, political operatives and friends.

Even so, some NBC insiders think it’s all simply a negotiating ploy to jack up his contract.

According to Politico, Mr. Matthews has recently taken to asking advisors about whether he should walk away from MSNBC before his contract runs out in the summer of 2009.  read more »

On the morning of Sunday, Nov. 30, David Gregory, NBC News’ ubiquitous robo-anchor, popped up in front of the cameras at Rockefeller Plaza where over the course of several drizzly hours, he held forth on such topics as the dismal weather, Barry Manilow and the world’s largest floating Christmas Tree, which turns out to be in located in Rio de Janeiro.

Mr. Gregory—NBC’s chief White House correspondent, host of MSNBC’s 6 p.m. show 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and the world’s most indomitable substitute anchor—was filling in on Sunday for Lester Holt as co-anchor of Weekend Today.

   read more »

Danny Shea of the Huffington Post is reporting that David Gregory has been chosen as the next moderator of NBC News' Meet the Press.

Mr. Gregory's name has been reportedly on a short list of possible replacements for the esteemed position since Tim Russert passed away of a sudden heart attack this past June.

When reached by Media Mob, an NBC News spokesperson said that the network "has nothing to announce."

Likewise, when contacted by phone, Mr. Gregory’s agent, Richard Leibner of N.S. Bienstock, said he could neither confirm nor deny the report.

Today CBS News executives named Nancy Cordes as the network's new Congressional Correspondent. Previously, Ms. Cordes served as the network's Transportation and Consumer Safety Correspondent. According to the press release, she will continue to cover both beats.

More from the release:

Prior to joining CBS News, Cordes was an ABC News correspondent based in New York (2005-07), where she reported for all ABC News broadcasts and covered many major news stories, including Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq and the 2004 election. Before that, she was a Washington-based correspondent for NewsOne, the affiliate news service of ABC News (2003-04). Prior to joining ABC News, Cordes was a reporter for WJLA-TV Washington, D.C. (1999-2003), where she covered the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon, the 2000 Presidential race, the D.C.-area sniper attacks, and peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia. She began her career as a reporter for KHNL-TV Honolulu (1995-97).

Writing in The Los Angeles Times today, Matea Gold reports that NBC News executives are close to naming a permanent moderator for Meet the Press.

According to Ms. Gold a decision could be announced on the December 7th show, which could be Tom Brokaw's last as interim moderator.

The short list of candidates, according to Ms. Gold, is essentially the same as its been for months: David Gregory, Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell, and Gwen Ifill.

From the story:

In an interview, Ifill said that she had informal conversations about the job with NBC officials several weeks ago, but no offer has been made.

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On Tuesday morning, Bloomberg LP executives announced that David Rhodes, Fox News' Vice President of news, is joining them as the company's new head of American television (the move was first reported on TVNewser).

According to the press release, the addition of Mr. Rhodes "caps a reorganization" currently being implemented by Andrew Lack, the former President of NBC News, who joined Bloomberg back in October as the new C.E.O. of the company's multimedia group.

"We are empowering local Bloomberg Television management, making room for innovative programming and delivering more relevant and insightful content to Bloomberg viewers, the highest net-worth audience in the world," Mr. Lack said in the release.

What kind of changes does Mr. Rhodes—who has spent the past 12 years working at Fox News—have in mind for Bloomberg TV programming? On Tuesday afternoon, we reached the 34-year-old executive on his cell phone in the back of a cab.  read more »

On Monday evening, former MSNBC general manager and current NBC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams was talking about his new gig.

Less than a week after he announced he was launching a “global strategy firm” that would assemble a network of thousands of working journalists, bloggers, authors and ex-journalists, he was drowning in applications.

He’d made it easy, of course. The same day he announced his plans, he launched a Web site where anyone can pretty much apply to become an “expert” for the firm by simply submitting one’s background information and by checking off areas of media-related expertise, ranging from politics and sports to pharmaceuticals and video games.  read more »

Ted Koppel is leaving the Discovery Channel six months before the end of his contract, it was announced today.

The move has since touched off speculation that Mr. Koppel made the move in order to become the next moderator of NBC News' Meet the Press.

Mr. Koppel's name has long been a part of the rumors concerning who NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker might tap for the coveted position.

Then again, in July, Mr. Koppel seemed to dismiss the possibility of taking over the show in an interview with Gail Shister at Mediabistro's TV Newser, suggesting that NBC News needed to hire someone younger.

On Wednesday, Nov. 19, former MSNBC general manager and current NBC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams announced that he was launching a "global strategy firm" that would assemble a network of thousands of working journalists, bloggers, authors, and ex-journalists and then use the collective media brain trust to consult deep-pocked individuals and institutions on various aspects of media strategy.

That same day, the firm launched its Web site. There, you can apply to become an "expert" for the firm by simply submitting your background information and by checking off your areas of media-related expertise, ranging from politics and sports to pharmaceuticals and video games.  read more »

Alan Colmes will be stepping down as co-host of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes at the end of the year, it was announced today.

Mr. Colmes, who for the past 12 years has played liberal to Sean Hannity's conservative, has posted a press release announcing his decision on his blog Liberaland.

From the release:

In announcing his decision, Colmes said, 'I approached Bill Shine (FNC’s Senior Vice President of Programming) earlier this year about wanting to move on after 12 years to develop new and challenging ways to contribute to the growth of the network. Although it’s bittersweet to leave one of the longest marriages on cable news, I’m proud that both Sean (Hannity) and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night for so many years.

 read more »

Arianna, Tina, Liz ... and Greta?

On GretaWire today, Greta Van Susteren, the Fox News anchor and profilic blogger, invited readers to write in about their dream jobs. Ms. Van Susteren kicked things off by admitting that she sometimes dreams of running an online news site.

From the post:

I love my job but from time to time think about the future (I can be a dreamer)….what is next? what would be fun for me? Every day I have a different idea of what is next (and let me repeat, I do love my job), but if I had to pick today I would love to run an internet news site.  read more »

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On the heels of yesterday's announcement that Roger Ailes has signed a five-year contract extension with News Corp., Matea Gold of The Los Angeles Times caught up with Mr. Ailes.

In the interview, Ms. Gold asked Mr. Ailes about a number of challenges facing News Corp., including the fate of My Network TV—a network that News Corp. started in 2006 primarily made up of stations which were former WB and UPN affiliates.

From the article:

Its original lineup of English-language telenovelas fell flat. "They weren't dirty enough," quipped Ailes.

The network currently airs a mix of action movies and reality shows, but executives were in meetings this week to discuss a new approach.

"We're considering every strategy," Ailes said. "Let's put it that way."

Rupert Murdoch announced today that Roger Ailes has signed a five-year contract extension to stay at News Corporation, where, in part, he oversees Fox News and the Fox Business Network.

"It is one of the ironies of his extreme success over the 10 years of the Fox News Channel that Roger Ailes hates journalists, manages them, and counts himself among their ranks," wrote Rebecca Dana in The Observer two years ago in a profile of Mr. Ailes.

"I'm going to put it on my mantle," said Christopher Andersen.

It was the night of Tuesday, Nov. 18, and Mr. Andersen was standing on the top deck of a multi-plateau ballroom in the Time Warner Center. Below him, hundreds of guests were strolling about sipping cocktails and inhaling mini-hamburgers.

Mr. Andersen was cradling in his hands a large bronze award statue. "Feel how heavy it is," said Mr. Andersen, pushing the award into a reporter's hands.

Ooof!

Moments earlier, Mr. Andersen (no relation to Wired's similarly named editor) had received the award, known as a Joanie. It was given to him for his book, Somewhere in Heaven: The Remarkable Love Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve.

"It's a love story," he said. "I like universal themes."

The partygoers had gathered there at an annual benefit for Joan's Legacy, a New York based charity that raises money to fight against lung cancer, which was created in honor of Joan Scarangello, a successful, beloved, nonsmoking television producer who died of the disease in 2001. She was 47 years old.  read more »

Today, Katie Couric is sitting down with Joe Lieberman for the first on-air interview with the Senator since the Democrats voted on Tuesday in favor of allowing him to retain his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.

The interview will take place in Washington and appear on tonight's CBS Evening News.

TVNewser reports that afterwards Ms. Couric will return to New York where she will be making her first appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman since her famous candid camera moment on the show, during one of the craziest days of her life back in September.

Cindy Adams woke up on Election Day knowing exactly where to spend her evening. There were parties all over town. Lefty celebrities would be out in force. But the longtime gossip columnist for the New York Post wanted to be at the place she felt would be “the heartbeat of the world”—namely, the CNN Grill.

Like many of her pals in the media, Ms. Adams had first frequented the CNN Grill during its original iteration at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. There, the cable news network had sequestered a centrally located sports bar, plastered the walls with flat-screen televisions tuned to CNN, concocted some thematic drinks (the caucus cooler!) and threw open the doors.  read more »

Last night, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News appeared on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. There, Jon Stewart admitted that on the heels of President-elect Barack Obama's victory, he was worried for Mr. O'Reilly.

"I'm an anarchist," said Mr. O'Reilly.

To soothe him, Mr. Stewart gave the anchor a teddy bear and some hot cocoa.

In The New York Times today, Bill Carter reports that a Fox station and a NBC station in Philadelphia are teaming up to share video operations in a bid to save money.

According to Mr. Carter, the move is a part of a broader plan which the stations' parent companies, News Corporation and NBC Universal, hope to roll out in cities across the country, including here in New York.

As we've previously noted, WNBC is New York is currently undergoing some major changes, which have already resulted in a downsizing of the station's roster of cameramen and camera crews.

More from today's article:

Al Primo, a news director in the early days of Eyewitness News at WABC in New York and who now consults on local television issues, said, "I think this is inevitable.  read more »

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