Overlooked: NewsHour's Money Problems — May 23rd 2008

By Dakota Smith

Nightly PBS show The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer may be popular with Propeller Scout Corey Spring, but a New York Times story about the show's funding difficulties wasn't a hit with users. As reported by the Times earlier this week, Archer Daniels Midland--the country's leading producer of ethanol--has withdrawn its funding, ending a 14-year deal that had helped pad out the program's roughly $27 million budget.

The story went on to detail the show's difficulties in securing corporate sponsorship, Corporations "no longer sponsor public television program for purely philanthropic reasons," according to the paper; instead they prefer a more targeted, marketing approach. Overall, PBS has seen its corporate underwriting drop 40 percent in the last five years.

As a result, the budget for the NewsHour is "several million dollars short" this year, according to the paper. According to the Times, Linda Winslow, the program's executive producer, "is still figuring out new ways to operate under a budget squeeze. Open jobs, including a correspondent and a senior producer, are not being filled for now. Longer term, she is investigating partnerships, but covering the news remains her top priority, a sentiment echoed by Mr. Lehrer. 'We've always played it close to the chest financially,' he said. 'That's part of who we are, part of being in public broadcasting.'"

The show, originally conceived as the half-hour Robert MacNeil Report, first aired on New York's channel 13 (WNET) in 1975. Reporter Robert MacNeil moderated the show, while Lehrer served as the Washington correspondent. In September 1983, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour launched, and the revamped NewsHour with Jim Lehrer debuted in 1995.

Anne Bell, public relations manager for the NewsHour, tells Propeller that there has been "a lot of reaction" in the wake of the Times story. "Calls, emails, everyone from individuals and corporations, asking 'How can I help you?'"

Bells says she has been telling individuals to donate to their local PBS stations--that way, individual stations will have the funds to air the NewsHour. Needless to say, this media attention has been helpful. But as Bell points out, long-term strategies still need to be hammered out. "We are looking at all options right now," she says. "We are in discussions with PBS and foundations and we're looking at the overall strategy."

It's worth noting that the fiscal pinch isn't the result of dwindling viewers. While the award-winning NewsHour sees significantly lower ratings than the news shows of the three major networks, the broadcast does pull in about the same nightly audience as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or some of Fox's talk shows.

And NewsHour isn't the only PBS show obliged to rethink its funding strategies. "The entire landscape has changed," says Bell. "It's no longer the three networks and us. There are more and more cable television programs. Now underwriters are spreading out their advertising--it's not one charity that underwrites the program exclusively."

In an email to Overlooked, Spring explained his interest in the story: "I submitted it because I've always respected Jim Lehrer as a newsman. He is very evenhanded and just gives you the news straight, which is what a good journalist should do. It's a shame that the show is on the ropes, because journalistically, it's one of the better ones on television.... And no one knows it." Spring adds that the story's lack of traction on Propeller was somewhat predictable. "I wasn't really surprised it didn't get more votes, because PBS isn't really popular (at least in ratings) with the general public."

Tags: jim lehrer, JimLehrer, newshour

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