Outside Cable News

Via Drudge/NYTimes

CBS Said to Consider Use of CNN in Reporting
By TIM ARANGO

CBS, the home of the most storied news division in broadcasting, has been in discussions with Time Warner about a deal to outsource some of its newsgathering operations to CNN, two executives briefed on the matter said Monday.

Over the last decade, CNN has held on-again, off-again talks with both ABC News and CBS News about various joint ventures but during the last several months, talks with CBS have been revived and lately intensified, according to the executives who were granted anonymity because of the confidential nature of the negotiations.

Broadly speaking, the executives described conversations about reducing CBS’s newsgathering capacity while keeping its frontline personalities, like Katie Couric, the CBS Evening News anchor, and paying a fee to CNN to buy the cable network’s news feeds.

Another possibility, these people said, would be that CBS would keep its correspondents in a certain region but pair them with CNN crews.

But, these people cautioned, no deal was imminent. Through a spokesman, CBS declined to comment. A CNN spokeswoman said, “we don’t comment on speculative business matters.”
(more…)

Via Uncle Barky’s Bytes
By ED BARK

>Thanks to Cella for the link.

Henderson back at Good Day after weekend jaunt with Fox & Friends
Megan Henderson didn’t miss a beat Monday, returning to Fox4’s Good Day after a weekend in New York co-hosting Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends.

It reportedly was an “audition,” although she characterized it as more of a fling in an email sent to unclebarky.com Saturday evening.

“I’ve read the trades, too,” Henderson said. “However, I have not been told anything about an ‘audition.’ At some of the other network morning shows, they’ll bring folks from their affiliates in every once in awhile, just for fun. I think this is a similar deal. I appreciate the opportunity.”

In a subsequent email, Henderson said she is not in contract negotiations and that her pact with Fox4 “isn’t up until February 2009.” It’s never too early to begin talks when you’re part of a very profitable, No. 1-rated early morning show. But an earlier post that said Henderson is “in contract negotiations” has been corrected.

Henderson worked the 6 to 9 a.m. shift on both Saturday and Sunday at Fox & Friends. She sat between resident males Clayton Morris and Greg Kelly on Saturday, with substitute Eric Shawn filling in for the latter on Sunday’s show. All fall well short of Good Day’s Tim Ryan, with whom Henderson has worked since August 2003. They made no mention of her weekend excursion during the first two hours of Monday’s show.
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Via B&C
By John Eggerton
MSNBC.com Boasts 125.7M Video Streams in March
News Network’s Site’s Video Player Allows Content to Be Embedded on Other Sites, Blogs

MSNBC.com recorded another personal best for video streaming.
MSNBC.com

Citing its launch of a new online-video player in December, the news network said it garnered 125.7 million on-demand video streams in March on top of a record-setting November for streams on the site.

MSNBC introduced a player that allows other sites and blogs to embed its videos.

According to the network, February Nielsen//NetRatings numbers showed that it is the top site in total video streams and No. 1 in time spent with videos at 36.8 minutes per month by more than 7 million unique video users.

Via Multichannel News
By Linda Moss
CNN To Air Live Presidential Candidates Forum On Faith Issues
‘Compassion Forum’ Scheduled Nine Days Ahead Of Crucial Democratic Primary

CNN will serve as the exclusive broadcaster of a presidential-candidate forum on faith, values and other current issues at Messiah College near Harrisburg, Pa., April 13 at 8 p.m., officials said Monday.

CNN Election Center anchor Campbell Brownand Newsweek editor and Newsweek.com election anchor Jon Meacham will moderate what is being billed as The Compassion Forum, which will take place nine days before the Pennsylvania primary.

Organized and sponsored by Faith in Public Life, the 90-minute forum will consist of wide-ranging and probing discussions of policies related to moral issues.

It will feature Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the same stage to talk about these topics as each candidate sits down individually with the moderators. Sen. John McCain was also invited by Faith in Public Life to participate in the bi-partisan forum, but only Clinton and Obama have confirmed.
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Via Diverse
By Sarah Lake
CNN Hosting HBCU Contest on Being Black in America

CNN is asking HBCU students what it means to be “Black in America” through its Campus iReporter Contest.

Students from the Atlanta University Center, Florida A&M University, Howard University, North Carolina A&T University and North Carolina Central University are eligible to win a trip to the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans and a digital video camera by submitting a video to be aired during CNN’s series “Black in America.”

Entries should be 1 to 10 minutes in length and should address one of the following issues:
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Via WJR

Hannity got his first commercial radio job by posting a “Job Wanted” ad in Radio & Records. He was picked up immediately by WVNN in Huntsville, Alabama. Radio station WGST brought Hannity to Atlanta, where his ratings success led to a phone call from the Fox News Channel. Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News, brought Hannity to New York City in the fall of 1996.

Fox News Channel began “Hannity & Colmes” in the most competitive time slot in prime time, where the show rivaled CNBC’s “Geraldo” for ratings, challenged CNN’s “Larry King Live” and caught the attention of WABC-AM Program Director Phil Boyce. Hannity joined WABC in 1997. His strong political commentary has brought vast numbers of listeners, and “The Sean Hannity Show” now has a strong lead over long-time New York conservative host Bob Grant’s program on WOR Radio.

“It has been an incredibly rewarding experience for me to put a guy like Sean Hannity on the air and watch him grow into one of the top talk talents in America,” said WABC’s program director Phil Boyce. “As Hannity’s ratings have grown, so has his national reputation. I knew that something special was happening around the country when I learned that more listeners on the Internet were tuning in to Hannity than any other program on WABC, and WABC was the most streamed audio site in the world. We are thrilled to bring Sean’s radio broadcast to his powerfully loyal audience nationwide.”
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Via CJR
By Liz Cox Barrett
Starring “The News?”

The headline on today’s Alessandra Stanley piece in The New York Times caught my eye: “A New Star as Campaign Programs Shuffle: The News.”

The new campaign-focused cable TV shows (MSNBC’s Race For the White House, CNN’s Election Center and Fox News’ America’s Election HQ star…”the news?”

Writes Stanley: “The distinction of all three new hourlong [cable] programs is that the hosts are not the stars, the campaign is.” And “the campaign” (which so often means strategy, gaffes, dueling surrogates) should not be confused (as it was in the headline) with “the news.”

Also, seems Stanley prefers her CNN with Campbell Brown, likening the experience of watching Brown versus Lou Dobbs to “entering a cool forest glade after an hour on an unairconditioned subway car at rush hour.”

Sounds pretty Zen for CNN.

Via TVPredictions
By Swanni
FOX News HD

>EXCERPT

The top-rated cable news network has been working on a high-def simulcast for months, according to industry sources. But it has surprisingly failed to launch, although main rival CNN has been in high-def now for more than six months.

>From my understanding CNN is only in HD when coming from New York.. Which means all that Atlanta action is SD, eh. But, whatever sells.

Sources told TVPredictions.com last fall that DIRECTV would carry Fox News HD when it launched — and Time Warner is now saying it will offer the channel by month’s end.

So, did Time Warner let the cat out of the bag by saying Fox News HD will be added this month?

There’s been no official confirmation from Fox so stay tuned.