European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 19, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Ted Koppel left in studio did no the have some role in helping overthrow philippine Leader Ferdinand Marcos Abc television network network news in  anxious Anchorman by Thomas b. Rosenstiel los Angeles times it is monday and Nelson Mandela is expected Home tonight in Soweto South Africa for the first time in 26 years. Outside the House stands a familiar presence a Anchorman Dan rather handsome As Ever in a Bone White safari jacket and Blue jeans was t he wearing an overcoat in Moscow two Days ago7 Click Tom Brokaw is there too. He seems less posed than Dan maybe because he s wearing a Blue suit. He docs take off the tie though after the commercial. Clrk and there s Ted Koppel unflappable As he hosts a town meeting in Johannesburg bringing together South africans who officially do not speak to each other to almost seems to function As a kind of global conflict mediator a did t he have some role in helping overthrow philippine Leader Ferdinand Marcos from Berlin to Malta to Prague to Johannesburg the past year has brought a new twist to the idea that television will shrink the world into a global Village the Village now has a tour guide or narrator like Thornton s Wilder s play our town. Increasingly the Central protagonist of the television culture the Anchorman is part of the scene walking us through the pictures a less an Quot Anchor Quot and More a part of the video. What is going on is All this Rushing about a Chase for ratings or another to news fad like blonde morning show hosts or spinning graphics Thi answer is no the change really signifies the degree to which the role of nightly network news itself is in turmoil. Where once Only the networks had footage of National and International events today everyone has those pictures and the networks have lost their function As a a Mary source of news sending the Anchorman to the scene is part of a tense network news search for a reason to exist at All what s More the wandering Anchor reflects the extent to which in the ago of instant video pictures themselves Are the Story and the Anchorman is less a storyteller working with words than a sort of companion for the Page 14 a a a the stars and stripes viewer supplying a sense of emotion and familiarity to the pictures. Quot in the old Days he who had the news footage ruled the universe and the Only people who had it were the three networks Quot Lawrence Grossman former president of Abc news said. Now Quot everybody has it a the locals can a and it is the same stuff and they get it earlier and the networks news divisions Are desperately looking for a reason for  to compete network news May increasingly treat subjects at greater length and try to be More interpretive and More International. If that happens it will duplicate the change newspapers once went through to reaction to the Advent of network news. The roots of the networks current turmoil reach Back to the Early 1980s. The fledgling Cable news network was gaining credibility As a news organization and looking for ways to generate More Revenue. Its founder Ted Turner saw an opening Why not sell in no a vast amounts of footage to the hundreds of local news operations around the country the networks had always jealously guarded their own footage recognizing that exclusive coverage of the world s biggest Story each Day was one of their key competitive advantages. Turner had a different advantage. Viewers could turn to can As news was breaking. If the same footage then appeared on local stations a few hours later it would Only serve As a kind of advertisement for can. The Cable operation in turn could get local footage from its subscribers including some in Ether countries which would provide it with International news. Turner s timing was Superb. In the mid-1980s, dozens of new Independent stations were being licensed and they needed to establish news programs. At the same time local stations began forming their own cooperatives to share footage such As conus communications Cut of Minneapolis and visness offering coverage from overseas. Network affiliates caught in the Middle started pressuring the networks to respond. Quot give us More of your footage from around the world Quot they demanded Quot to help us compete in our local  the networks 1 needed Strong affiliates. And they were feeling increasing economic pressure themselves from the Rise of Cable. Selling their footage was a potential source of Revenue. In 1986 the networks typically fed affiliates a half hour of footage a Day. Today that is up to eight hours a Day. The change Quot revolutionized the business Quot said Don Dunphy Abc vice president for affiliate news service. Local stations can air the same pictures As the networks Only earlier. To a Large degree the networks role As the nation s primary headline service has been supplanted. Quot what local television has is video flow Quot said Abc Anchorman Peter Jennings and local stations do Quot a pretty Good Job of covering local news and a pretty Good Job of giving the National and International  in fact More people watch local news than watch the networks. And they watch More of it a almost twice As much each Day. Network officials began worrying about their role. Articles began appearing to announce the impending death of network news. It was just about this time the networks began experimenting with travel. Quot after you have watched an hour of local news Why would you watch another half hour of network a Tom Bettag executive producer of lbs nightly news said. Quot there has to be something  in 1985, All three networks decided to Anchor from the . Soviet Summit in Geneva. The next year they anchored from Manila for the philippine elections and by 1987, the anchors were travelling fairly often. Usually such trips were for Domestic stories easily planned in Advance a the state of the Union address or space shuttle launching. Then in 1989 the expanding use of travel changed in an important Way. The networks started Rushing to the scene of breaking events and increasingly a even before the opening in Eastern Europe a they went overseas. The strategy had several advantages. For one thing putting the Anchor on the scene and into the shot makes the news proprietary visually linking it to the network in the viewer s mind. The emphasis on International news is also part of the Effort in an Era when local news consultants preach that audiences Don t like foreign news the networks see a Market Niche that differentiates them. Quot i think the american Public is More interested in International news than most journalists think they Are Quot said Don Decesare vice president for news coverage for lbs. In effect network officials concede they Are moving toward becoming supplements to the other forms of news. Where network news May Well be headed television executives say is toward an even More abbreviated version of the Basic news but longer treatment of one or two subjects a the main Story of the Day or something More thematic. In this format the Anchor might be on the Road frequently with a second Anchor in new York handling the rest of the news. If so the change would match another evolution in television. To a degree unparalleled a few years ago this has become a medium of pictures a not words. Where once Walter Cronkite and Howard k Smith described events and showed film footage that might be several Days old today can regularly airs videotape As soon As it comes in a pictures that Are unedited that even the can journalists have not seen pictures without narration. The change has been driven by technology with an almost darwinian inevitability As videotape replaced film satellites replaced wires and satellite dishes became so portable they could be carried in suitcases in a few years video signals will probably be sent Over monday