New Nightline: “Nowhere Else”

I asked for questions ahead of this afternoon’s teleconference with Nightline EP James Goldston, and I used this e-mailer’s response: “I used to watch Nightline all the time but I stopped, and I don’t remember why. Why should I start watching again? What will I get from the new Nightline that I can’t get from NPR or CNN?” Goldston answered:

“It’s almost a truism that Nightline’s audience has declined significantly, softened significantly. Part of that, I think, is attributable to the way in which all broadcast network audiences have decreased significantly over the past [few] years…

What we are promising viewers is a show that’s true to what Nightline has always been and the way Nightline has always covered stories and the courage to do stories that other people aren’t doing.

This is an opportunity, and an opportunity we’ll take, to modernize the show in some ways. The show, in presentational terms, will change significantly…I don’t think it has any implications for the quality of our journalism.

I think we can present the show in a much more modern way. All the changes we’re making — a new set, taking the show into Times Square, having a more recognizable open — all of those things, I think, will help the show.

In terms of our points of difference with CNN and NPR, I have not been against either network, but I feel very confident that you’re going to see stories on Nightline that you’ll see nowhere else.

And that indeed will be our slogan going forward: ‘nowhere else.'”