In Monday’s Los Angeles Times, Matea Gold files a definitive “good news about CBS News” story. Excerpting from the middle…
| Andrew Heyward, then president of the news division, put together a series of pilot newscasts for Moonves that stressed a ’60 Minutes’-style of in-depth storytelling. He and other news executives also suggested adding more on-screen graphics and features that took viewers behind the scenes. |
…Heyward is out and Sean McManus is in…
| “There was hunger inside the organization to get going, and I think Sean came in and he immediately tapped into that,” [Rome] Hartman said. “He said: ‘I care about this place. I love CBS, and I want to win, and I want to help you win.’ I saw people in that room that day who just wanted to get up and cheer.” |
…Then Hartman becomes EP of the Evening News…
| Since they took over, Heyward’s initiative to develop pilots for the evening news has been abandoned. Network officials said that [Les] Moonves — now busy with responsibilities as head of the newly formed CBS Corp. — is content to let McManus decide what needs to be done with the program. McManus said that he is not looking for Hartman to reinvent the form. “His [Hartman’s] plan is not to break the mold of the evening newscast but rather to take the best of what currently exists, improve upon that, and inject some new energy and a true commitment to putting on the best newscast in the business,” McManus said in an e-mail to The Times. |
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