MarketWatch’s Jon Friedman talks to ABC News president David Westin and the New Yorker’s Ken Auletta about the changes anticipated in the way ABC and will produce news. Auletta made this point:
“The journalistic equation is how to remain relevant,” Auletta noted. “In a world of instant news delivered in scattered news bits throughout the day, it makes sense for the network to offer what people can’t find much of on television. Not more weather or flash, but more context, more perspective, more substance.” Westin talks often about the urgency he feels to present ‘distinctive’ programming.
Auletta also thinks CBS and ABC will need to get a cable news partnership: “The broadcast network that that fails to get a dance partner stands a good chance of extinction. That’s the business equation.”