ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120010
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: ERIC MINK NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Dan Rather's position is safe, Harry Smith and Paula Zahn's may not be, ``48 Hours'' is in for a change, and ``60 Minutes'' executive producer Don Hewitt is investigating ways to add a breaking-news element to his weekly program.
So says Andrew Heyward, 45, who Monday took over from Eric Ober as president of CBS News, an appointment that had been rumored for weeks. Digging out from under the snow may be everyone's immediate task, but Heyward faces the far more daunting challenge of digging CBS News out of the morale and ratings rut that is the legacy of ex-owner Laurence Tisch.
``We will be looking at every single broadcast with a critical eye,'' Heyward said. He and each program's executive producer ``are taking zero for granted. But there are no quick fixes. There's no formula for any overnight turnarounds.''
The evaluations are not aimed at eliminating jobs, however. Indeed, the slash-and-burn Tisch era has left most CBS News programs saddled with reduced resources, both financial and human. Westinghouse, which assumed control of CBS early in December, has promised the support required to keep the broadcasts competitive.
Nowhere has CBS News been less competitive than on weekday mornings, where the budget and staffing (and ratings) for ``CBS This Morning'' are a fraction of those for NBC's ``Today'' and ABC's ``Good Morning America.''
```This Morning' is the top priority,'' Heyward said. Morning anchors Harry Smith and Paula Zahn, he said, ``are both extremely talented and smart,'' but whether they remain in place on the program depends on the upcoming overall evaluation of the show.
Heyward said he is aware of reports that CBS' affiliates may be feeling increasingly tempted to take the time allotted to the network's morning show and use it for their own local programing, although he has not heard such talk from the stations directly.
On the other hand, Heyward, who has spent the last 15 months as executive producer of the ``CBS Evening News,'' did not hesitate to endorse Dan Rather as anchor for the foreseeable future. ``Dan is an enormous asset to us,'' Heyward said. ``At the same time, Dan and I have talked about and agree on the need to develop the next generation of CBS News anchors.''
As to prime time, Heyward said the 8-year-old ``48 Hours'' would get the flexibility to tell stories that did did not necessarily merit a full hour.
Heyward, who was the program's founding executive producer in 1988, is credited with helping to develop its unique application of first-person, magazinelike reporting to a single topic each week. That approach to storytelling will continue, he said, but the single-topic mandate will apply only when a given subject warrants it.
What neither ``48 Hours'' nor any other CBS News broadcast will give up, Heyward insisted, was the focus on content over style. ``Even if we didn't care about CBS News as an institution, we would still emphasize quality and substantive reporting because, strategically, it's the smart thing to do.''
Heyward bristled at the charges of detractors who say that he constructed the since-canceled ``Eye to Eye With Connie Chung'' magazine as a tabloid vehicle. ``That's ridiculous,'' he said. ``There were some excesses, but the show was designed to be lively, interesting and irreverent. The fact is, the show was not a success.
``But anybody who's been in this business for any number of years who hasn't made some mistakes or hasn't done some stories they wished they hadn't,'' Heyward said, ``hasn't taken any chances and doesn't deserve this position.''
LENGTH: Medium: 69 linesby CNB