CBS News: Drama

CBS News: Drama

Months after the CBS News Rathergate debacle and the retirement of Dan Rather, you would think that some significant progress had been made in revamping the CBS News division. Eh, not so much...it was announced today that the President of CBS News, Andrew Heyward is stepping down and will be replaced by Sean McManus, the head of CBS Sports.

This comes at a time when CBS News is trying to reinvent the format of the nightly news cast to compete with cable news stations like Fox News and CNN as well as the surge of those going to Internet portals like Yahoo!

As more young people turn to blogs and blogging, the have been allured by the "spirit of conversation" that exists in them. They can choose to participate and contribute, making their thoughts and feelings known to others. Obtaining news through a one-way dialouge doesn't have the same appeal. This type of interactivity has clearly been an influence on Leslie Moonves as he tries to revamp the format. According to the New York Times:

It has been nearly a year since Mr. Moonves said he was seeking to blow up what he has described as the "voice of God" single-anchor format for the nightly news in favor of something more innovative - a quest that has thus far proved elusive.

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Mr. McManus will face challenges that simply did not exist in Mr. Arledge's time, as CBS - and other television news divisions, to say nothing of newspapers - struggle to find new ways to captivate viewers who are increasingly defecting to newer outlets like Fox News and Yahoo, and increasingly skeptical of journalists as a whole.