CBS News and Stations is making moves to better unify CBS News, its owned stations and CBS Media Ventures (CMV), and better cover breaking news, as Wendy McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures, shared at a town hall meeting April 9.
One initiative involves building a larger coverage footprint across the country, which the company refers to as a national movement of community journalism. CBS said the following cities will get new multimedia journalists, and perhaps become what the company calls a “news hub”: Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; Des Moines; Kansas City; Nashville, Tennessee; New Orleans; Raleigh, North Carolina; San Antonio; St. Louis; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Houston; and Tampa.
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The community journalism initiative has been deployed at the station level and is expanding to national news. The approach will allow CBS to respond to stories faster, and apply more relevant content, CBS executives believe.
“Building on the stations’ grassroots efforts to turn neighborhoods into newsrooms, the goal is to embed our local and national reporters in cities and towns that might otherwise go overlooked, and as a result, cover news of the day faster and create truly original stories that illuminate our nation through the heart of storytelling,” McMahon said. “It’s in our DNA to be chroniclers of the country and never has that been more important than this moment right now.”
Terri Stewart, CBS News senior VP of domestic newsgathering, will oversee the hubs.
Adrienne Roark, president of content development and integration, CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures, called community journalism “the core of how CBS Stations connects authentically with the communities we inform and serve across the country. There are incredible opportunities for us to meet people where they are and share their stories and concerns.”
Roark mentioned New York, where CBS News and Stations has placed journalists in the various boroughs of the No. 1 DMA. “They have fostered a deep trust and are covering broad topics they are hearing from the community matter, like health, politics, education, housing, crime and many other topics,” she said.
Jennifer Mitchell, president of CBS Stations, spoke about the model of a reporter who lives, and works, in the community they cover. “We have made a significant investment in ensuring that we have the best grassroots hyperlocal reporting that can provide more context on issues facing our communities as it’s happening,” she said. “The purpose is straightforward, the reporter is embedded in the community, often living there or having roots there, builds a trusting relationship with the area, and reports on meaningful and relevant stories connected to that community. Two years ago, we underscored our commitment to community journalism by embedding Executive Producers of Impacting Communities (EPIC) across all our CBS-owned stations to provide more in-depth reporting and additional support for this work.”
CBS has announced the evening news segment “Eye on America” is expanding from a signature segment to a full unit within CBS News and Stations, led by executive editor Jim Axelrod. The segments will run four nights a week on the CBS Evening News, with “On the Road with Steve Hartman” running on Fridays. They'll also appear on stations and across all CBS News platforms.
CBS News is also enhancing news coverage with CBS News Confirmed, which uses data and technology to verify and fact-check questionable video. Confirmed has been hiring forensic journalists, conducting training and deploying new technology. Melissa Mahtani was named executive producer of CBS News Confirmed. Rhona Tarrant was named executive editor.
As CBS aims to unify its newsgathering efforts across CBS News, the station group and CMV, Megan Tennyson was named managing editor of Super Desk, the CBS News and Stations and Media Ventures newsgathering and content-sharing platform. Alturo Rhymes was named executive producer of Daily News, a new position to help centralize newsgathering offerings to all platforms. Kaci Sokoloff was promoted to a role overseeing booking for CBS News, Stations and Media Ventures.
Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, CBS News president, said the news hub approach and other initiatives will help CBS News better cover vital stories around the country. “One of CBS News’ core values is to be on the ground where the story is happening,” she said. “It is part of our DNA and drives our newsgathering decisions daily. It is the best way to deliver journalism with impact. Having reporters who live and work in these communities allows them to develop sources and build trust. Our journalists will be charged with finding the stories that genuinely reflect the issues on viewers minds and engage the country.”
