JEFFREY BROWN: All right. Let me go to some of the questions that have come in since we announced this. We put them in some different categories; one goes to depth of reporting. This is from Patricia Vozab in Amenia, New York. "Will the new program be able to give the same sufficient time periods to the interview segments to allow the depth that we are used to? I read the term "fast-paced opening" and felt a little stab of fear. I have witnessed programs that, in an effort to increase their pace, end up sacrificing content."
LINDA WINSLOW: In a word, we will always give the same amount of attention to stories that need in-depth treatment that we've given them over the years. But as anyone who's watched the show as long as you have knows, we've evolved, we aren't the same program we were when we went on the air and did one subject a night for a full half-hour.
We aren't even the program we were when we - when Justice [David] Souter's nomination to the Supreme Court was announced in, what, 1991, '92, around back early '90's. We had nine people on for the entire hour discussing its significance, most of whom -
JEFFREY BROWN: You don't think we're going to do that -
LINDA WINSLOW: I don't think we're going to do that when his [Souter's] replacement is named. But we still - we're not going to lose our focus on trying to bring the audience, the background and analysis it needs to understand what happened today on the really significant developments.
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, this - I mean this goes to - there are other questions along this line about what we mean by a more engaging program. This is David Silveira, came in online, so it doesn't say where he's from, I'm sorry. He says: "I just read about your proposed makeover in today's New York Times. I respectfully disagree with the need to create a more 'engaging program.' I've been a viewer for many years because I appreciate your in-depth reporting presented in a no-nonsense manner. We've all seen where engaging leads, it leads to the entertainment presented as news on the four major networks and the trash presented as news on cable."
LINDA WINSLOW: Could not agree more. That's not the way we were using the word "engaging."
JEFFREY BROWN: We're with you, David, right.
LINDA WINSLOW: Totally; what it means, at least as far as I'm concerned, is that we have to stop thinking of the NewsHour as a one-hour program that goes on the air at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. Eastern time or whenever it is your local station carries it. It has to have a life beyond its broadcast time, and it has to be available in whole, or in part, to the many, many members of our audience who are now very busy and not able to sit down when we go on the air to watch us. So we need to be able to engage them where they are, and that means on their cell phones, on their iPods, on their [video on demand systems], whatever it is, we will be there with some version of all or parts of the NewsHour for them to consume.
JEFFREY BROWN: Some people wrote in, and this actually goes to something we've been doing anyway, the concept of the lead story, so this is a good chance to talk about it. James Rhodes from Decorah, Iowa; "It appears in recent months that the NewsHour is moving toward covering more stories rather than dealing in depth with the three or four ones. It may just be the journalistic agenda is fuller now than previously, but it does lessen the weight of your coverage. I am unclear why there was a need for a lead story, and I do miss the initial news summary, but maybe I am just an old fuddy-duddy who doesn't like change."
LINDA WINSLOW: Well, if you are, you have a lot of company. And I know that many on my staff who don't qualify as old fuddy duddies, as they're under 25, also don't like this change. Our goal was to address something that we've learned through our research, and that is that many, many people these days come to our broadcast already knowing what the news is. They don't need a news summary at the top of the show, they'd like to get to the top of the show and find out what exactly - why was it that the stock market went down 400 points today. They know that because they saw it online, now they want to know why.
We are still in the process of tinkering with that format. And as you watch regularly, you can see it, and it isn't a set length of time. I think one of our problems right now is, you can't predict exactly when that news summary will occur, so if that's what you want to watch, you have to look for it. On the other hand, as we merge our two operations, online and on-air, we hope to make it very easy for you to find the NewsHour news summary online. It will always be there, someplace where you can just log in, click on it, and instantly get your fix, if that's what you're looking for.
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, there were a number of questions wondering about what that online aspect means, so let's talk a little bit about that. Let's see, Nadia Arensdorf from Conroe, Texas: "How specifically will you incorporate the Online NewsHour with the television broadcast? Will you have longer versions of your news segments and interviews available on the Web site or simply a repeat of it? I am curious to see how this will work." As are we, of course. Tell them what we have in mind.
LINDA WINSLOW: Well, many -
JEFFREY BROWN: What we're doing already.
LINDA WINSLOW: -- many of the pieces of this are already being tried out online. You can right now, for instance, Jeff, go online and read your art blog. You will find Art Beat. You will find much additional reporting that augments the pieces you do for the broadcast, as well as original reporting and interviews with people who have not appeared, nor probably will ever appear on the broadcast.
Sometimes we do things for the online world and decide, well, that was so good, let's try and put it on the air, and we work backwards from online to on-air.
And I think that one of the goals right now is, to speak directly to this question, is to merge our news desks. We have a bunch of people right now who work on the news summaries for the NewsHour, and we have a bunch of people who do news summaries for the Online NewsHour. And if we put all those people in the same room, we think we can achieve a constant news presence throughout the day that is personified by the correspondent that we announced that we were planning to hire, who will start the day posting an on-camera news summary recorded in our newsrooms, posting that online, and then that person will come back on the broadcast and read the news summary for the broadcast, and also do other things that allow him or her to refer back to the - to what's available online to explain what other resources there are there and what's being offered that will augment the experience you're having watching this program tonight.
JEFFREY BROWN: Including forums like this, presumably.
LINDA WINSLOW: Right.
JEFFREY BROWN: Speaking of that person, Emily Masters from Detroit wrote, "Where do I send my resume?" We knew you would get that. (Laughter)
LINDA WINSLOW: A long list of people. She should send it to ...
JEFFREY BROWN: Emily, if you can't find us online, then you don't deserve to be -
LINDA WINSLOW: Yes, that's right. Let's be encouraging. Address it to my assistant, Judy Willis, who is dutifully collecting stacks of these resumes right now, and tapes. I'm particularly interested in seeing your tapes. This is, after all, an on-camera position, and we're looking for someone with serious broadcast journalism experience who's also comfortable working in the new media world.
JEFFREY BROWN: A couple of - these are some things I think you can answer very quickly. Luc Theriault from Quebec: "Hello. Will your new format still include the excellent weekly segment of Shields and Brooks? I have religiously tuned in every Friday since Gergen and Shields."
LINDA WINSLOW: We would be fools to do anything about that. We definitely plan to include them, they're our most popular segment.
JEFFREY BROWN: Teresa Ripley from Eugene, Ore.: "Are you going to run news alerts across the screen as you talk? I hope not. Let's focus on one thing at a time."
LINDA WINSLOW: Yeah, I'm with you. I can't do those two things at once, and no, we're not going to do that.
JEFFREY BROWN: Somebody writes, this is going to Jim's, what you were talking about, let's see, this is Nick Sokoloff from San Rafael, [Calif.], "The quality of any business is dependent on its personnel. My assumption is that Jim Lehrer has been the key player in making personnel and other selections. Who now will be at that helm?"
LINDA WINSLOW: Me.
JEFFREY BROWN: That was fast! (Laughter) In terms of correspondence, actually this one comes from Judith Feinleib, I hope I'm saying it right, from Belmont, Mass., which happens to be my hometown. She said, "Can you outline the changes you are considering or have decided on? And will you be keeping all of your senior correspondents? I would hate to lose any of them, they are all wonderful." Thank you, Judith.
LINDA WINSLOW: I agree with Judith, they're all wonderful, and no, we're not planning to lose anybody, at least I hope not. What we want to do is assign people to things that help reinforce the team -- the members of the team -- and also produce some variety of program segments, so that everyone isn't always sitting in the studio conducting an interview. There are many other ways to cover stories, and we hope to come in every day and decide what's the best way to cover this story and then go about it.
JEFFREY BROWN: Now, a few questions, we'll go to funding, which is, of course, a continuing - always a question here. This is Charlton Price from Seattle: "How will you meet the probably much-higher cost of these welcomed changes and developments, and can there be guarantees of independence that have become ever more necessary as corporate funding has increased because of PBS in general and the NewsHour in particular?"
LINDA WINSLOW: It's increased or decreased?
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, it says increased.
LINDA WINSLOW: I think he means decreased.
JEFFREY BROWN: I think perhaps the confusion is, maybe he's saying we have more corporate funders, although we know that the amount is down, and we don't have more.
LINDA WINSLOW: We don't have more.
JEFFREY BROWN: So, first of all, Charlton, it's the -- corporate funding is less than it has ever been.
LINDA WINSLOW: Right.
JEFFREY BROWN: That's something people should know. But to the larger question of - and the higher cost that he's referring to, actually we're doing more with less.
LINDA WINSLOW: Correct.
JEFFREY BROWN: But speak to the funding as much.
LINDA WINSLOW: Well, our funding picture was pretty grim about a year ago, and it was pretty well-publicized that the staff has taken - made several sacrifices to help us get over the main hurdle. We've frozen contributions to the 401(k) plan. We've frozen salaries now for more than a year. We've put in place a number of economies in terms of production processes and decision-making routes that have helped us save quite a lot of money.
This new program that we're describing is not designed to cost us more money. On the contrary, we're trying to take advantage of the advances in technology that are happening so quickly that it enables us to do for less money what used to require more people and more time and more equipment. And actually, my great hope is that we will, once we get accustomed to the new ways of operating, we'll be able to do what you just said, do more than less. JEFFREY BROWN: Just a couple more here; John Anderson from Belchertown, Mass., "Is there a way that the new format could allow a viewer feedback panel on the NewsHour? This feedback would focus on content, not on personalities. I think monthly panels would be fine." I'm not sure exactly what he's asking for in terms of panels, but he -
LINDA WINSLOW: Maybe a feedback online mechanism or does he mean on the broadcast?
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, no, the new format, so that online may be...
LINDA WINSLOW: Well, if online is part of what you mean by the new format, I think we're trying to figure that very thing out right now. We're actively trying to think of ways that we can be more connected to our audience, and a two-way conversation is definitely connectivity.
JEFFREY BROWN: All right. Let me ask - this is a final one, and I just love it because it comes to us from - it shows our international audience, and we are international. This one comes from Kazakhstan, Mila Sanina, it's a simple one, "How will you be defining success for PBS NewsHour?"
LINDA WINSLOW: That's a really good question. You know, Jeff, you've worked here almost as long as I have, and you know that the one thing that we take great pride in is that we don't - we certainly don't define success the way our colleagues in the business do. We've never had a meeting where somebody ran in with last night's ratings and said, "boy, that really worked!" In most cases, we have no idea what our ratings are. PBS doesn't subscribe to the Nielsen service, and we can only guess.
JEFFREY BROWN: People find that hard to believe, but it is true. That is not how we define success.
LINDA WINSLOW: So how we define success is generally by our collective decision-making. We decide that that worked, that didn't work, that was a good program, that wasn't a good program, and for the following reasons. We have a lot of discussion about - and, obviously, a difference of opinion on occasion about what is a good approach to a segment.
I think in the end, though, we are defined by our audience. The people who interact with us one way or another, the people who see us in community forums that you - the kind of things you do frequently, Jim and the rest of them do on many occasions, the reception we get from the members of America's - everyone from the corporate board room to the guy down in the mailroom who appreciate what we offer and who say over and over again, "please don't go away, please don't stop doing what you're doing. Without you, I wouldn't know what was going on in the world." I think if they keep saying that, I'm going to keep thinking we're a success.
JEFFREY BROWN: All right. That's a good place to stop. We'll leave it there now for this special edition of the Insider Forum, special because we were talking with Executive Producer Linda Winslow. Thank you, Linda.
And thanks to all of the viewers and online visitors who wrote in this week to ask a question or comment on the work we do here. I hope we answered some of your most pressing questions, and keep them coming.
Thanks for listening. I'm Jeffrey Brown. Goodbye.
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