News chiefs at CNN, ABC have worked out merger plan

[mkt]

News chiefs at CNN, ABC have worked out merger plan
By MATT KEMPNER
Dec 7 2002 10:57AM GMT

ATLANTA (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) -- CNN Chairman Walter Isaacson said he and ABC News President David Westin already have worked out how to run their operations if they are merged.

"We know how we would do it," Isaacson said Thursday. "We know exactly how to do it, and I think it would make sense."

So why is there a pause in merger talks between AOL Time Warner's CNN and Disney's ABC News, especially since both AOL Time Warner Chief Executive D¡ck Parsons and Disney boss Michael Eisner have said they like the idea?

"AOL Time Warner needs to sort out its own strategy," Isaacson said at a meeting of the Georgia chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. AOL Time Warner has "a couple of other things on its agenda" to handle before making a decision on CNN, he said.

 

[prberk]

Originally posted by mktiggerman


"AOL Time Warner needs to sort out its own strategy," Isaacson said at a meeting of the Georgia chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. AOL Time Warner has "a couple of other things on its agenda" to handle before making a decision on CNN, he said.

And that is exactly why the two companies need to remain independent. It is sad to hear this news on the day that Roone Arledge is buried. Network execs used to take pride in building their organizations to serve the public. Roone did that. Today's negotiations I think are more about expediency than excellence in serving the public.

An agreement to share some resources might be productive and serve the public interest, but I think merging the organizations themselves is short-sighted and shows a cheap contempt for the importance of news (and public service) to each parent company. It is a shame.

[And if you don't know who Roone Arledge is, or why it matters, then PLEASE read this...]

Television Icon Dies
ABCNEWS Chairman Roone Arledge Revolutionized Sports, News Coverage



N E W Y O R K, Dec. 5 — Television pioneer Roone Arledge, chairman and longtime president of ABCNEWS, died today in New York City of complications from cancer. He was 71.

In a long and distinguished career spanning four decades, Arledge played a key role in revolutionizing how news and sporting events are covered and watched around the world.
When Life magazine asked historians, critics and scholars to select the "100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century" in 1990, they put Arledge on that exclusive list. Sports Illustrated magazine ranked Arledge third — behind only Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan — as one of the 40 individuals who have most significantly altered or elevated the world of sports in the last four decades.

"Roone Arledge revolutionized television and with it the way people see and understand the world," ABCNEWS President David L. Westin said. "A true creator, Roone invented many of television's most enduring and important programs, all the while fostering the brilliant careers of generations of the most talented men and women to work in front of or behind a television camera.

"His ability to broadcast the essential and unfolding drama in all human situations — from the gridiron to the world's stage — transformed not only sports and news but all of us who watched. He was our leader and our friend and we will miss his passion and his will to make us all better than we were."

The list of Arledge's accomplishments speaks for itself. During his nearly two decades at the helm of ABCNEWS, Arledge created some of the most critically acclaimed news programs in television history.

Prior to his tenure at the news division, Arledge was credited with transforming sports broadcasting. While president of ABC Sports from 1968 to 1986, Arledge introduced virtually all state-of-the-art technologies to sports programming, including instant replays, slow motion, advanced graphics, as well as the introduction of journalistic values and personalization of athletes to sports broadcasting.

"Before Roone Arledge there were no replays. There were no slow-mo machines," said ________ Ebersol, Arledge's protégé who later became the president of NBC Sports. "There was absolutely no prime-time sports on any network."

Before Arledge there was also no Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell, no Wide World of Sports with its "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat," and no Olympic sports coverage as we now know it.

For the record, not everyone agreed with Arledge's decision to give Cosell, a former labor lawyer, a turn at sports commentary. "When Monday Night Football first started, I used to come into my office and literally there were boxes of mail, people saying 'get that guy off,'" Arledge once said.

But together, Arledge and Cosell turned the Monday night program into the crown jewel of broadcast sports.

Brought Olympics to Americans

As the head of ABC Sports, Arledge brought the Olympics to Americans by producing all 10 ABC Olympic broadcasts. He is the first television executive and one of the very few Americans to receive the Medal of the Olympic Order from the International Olympic Committee. In 1989, he was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame.

At the Munich Olympics in 1972, he produced for a world audience the first live coverage of a terror attack, when the Palestinian Black September Movement murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the Games.

"It was a day like no other in sports," said Arledge. "I cannot think of a day that even comes close to it."

In 1977, Arledge became the president of ABCNEWS and immediately moved to turn the perennial third-place network into a media powerhouse. He used new technologies to bring news from around the world to Americans.

"Even those of us who had to compete against him from across the aisle, from another network, were constantly in awe of his innovation," NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw said of Arledge.

Arledge created the ABC shows World News Tonight, Nightline, 20/20, Primetime , This Week with David Brinkley and This Week without David Brinkley.

"If you think about news in our time, it's just synonymous with Roone Arledge," said 20/20 anchor Barbara Walters.

Arledge was well-known for his uncanny ability to spot potential stars and successfully recruited journalists like World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings. He also lured David Brinkley to the network and recognized the star talent of Diane Sawyer, Sam Donaldson, Ted Koppel, Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs, among others.

Arledge is also largely credited — or, perhaps, blamed — for paying journalists the kind of money even some of them thought was preposterous. But he had a different idea.

"I don't think I created the star system," he said. "I certainly carried it to new heights. Stardom really is recognition of someone who stands out above his peers. And above the crowd."

Some observers noted a shyness and mystery about Arledge. In a 1992 profile, Los Angeles Times writer Jane Hall said: "Arledge is notorious for not returning phone calls — even those of top management and famous TV talent — and for making decisions on a Zen-like timetable that can drive subordinates crazy. He is described by colleagues as both genuinely shy and genuinely uninterested in giving interviews."

Arledge was known to pass along his critiques of broadcasts by calling producers in their control rooms using a dedicated line known to executive producers and desk assistants alike as the "Roone phone."

Once Arledge did grant his attention, a network correspondent told Hall, "it can be like a laser beam."

"Those of us who worked for Roone believe we worked with a fascinating, eccentric, challenging, adventurous man through a good part of the golden age in television news," Jennings said.

A Start With Lambchop

Arledge first worked for the Dumont network and then at NBC, where he won the first of 37 Emmy Awards for producing a puppet show with Shari Lewis and her puppet, Lambchop.

Eventually, Arledge was recognized for his enormous contributions to the broadcasting medium with nearly every major award in television. In 1990, he was honored with broadcasting's most prestigious distinction: induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. Most recently, on Sept. 10, Arledge was awarded the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He was also the recipient of the Gold Medal Award from the International Radio and Television Society, as well as four George Foster Peabody Awards. Arledge received his most recent Peabody Award, a personal award, for bringing ABC to the forefront in news coverage; for his personal commitment to high ethical standards; for his leadership within ABC and the television industry; and for his outstanding contributions to the Olympic Games.

Arledge is survived by his wife, Gigi Shaw Arledge, and his children from a previous marriage, Roone Arledge Jr, Susan Weston, Betsey Arledge and Patricia Looney.