OCR Text |
Show new, cost-conscio- manage- ments trying to better their profit pictures by squeezing millions from news budgets. ABC was taken over by Capital Cities; CBS turned itself over to billionaire Laurence Tisch to avert a hostile takeover; St" NBC, a part of RCA, was acquired by General Electric. All n three networks faced strikes this year, principally over job security in the face of inevitable layoffs. Since 1984 the three shops have fired J "("WWW- - W or sweetened resignation and retirement packages for hundreds of employees in their news divisions (and hundreds in other divisions as well). Some of those experienced V.VxAl 7hands have grabbed off places at local stations in medium and large markets, which once were likely starting places for young people. That means that even smaller markets are -- V x swamped with applicants. "I I 41 Mt don't think it needs to sound so hopeless, but I don't think I GEOFFREY CLIFFORD could start out in Louisville, A technician shows his stuff: Jimmie Mitchell of KGUN-Tworks the cameras in Tucson Ky., today," says that lumi nous success symbol Diane of CBS, a Kentucky native who Sawyer began her career doing local news and in 1967. "The waitweather at WLKY-Ting lists at smaller stations are going to be longer and longer." Which is not to say that a persistent applicant will never find work; the position is simply apt to be more pedestrian than in the palmier past. The Labor Department, projecting into the says prospects for radio and TV newscasters are just average. Demand for writers, editors and producers should grow at a faster pace. The same is true for skilled technicians like Jimmie MitchI OK, so Woodward and Bernstein would lirst, the glitter. Tamara Maher ell, a recent Arizona graduate who now I few desks a be the summer not bowled But in over. television works news as a cameraman for KGUN-Tspent I ZZldown from a man she calls "Pe-- I as Bernstein himself discovered during a Tucson despite the fact that in the field, I ter" Peter Jennings of ABC. You relatively brief stint with ABC often sound light camera crews LJ may know him: he does a news looks more glamorous from the outside. are increasingly common. show. She was a summer intern. "You see Insiders have long known that broadcastFewer journeymen: "People of considerable that's a can be a on," business. Maher, find their careers stopped at lower talent going says ing everything New York's at budget-mindeAnd in Hofstra these and lower University. junior levels," says Mona Mangan, days, it's "It's fascinating. This is experience that rougher than ever shaken by layoffs, executive director of the Writers Guild most people will not actually have." Now strikes and narrowed opportunities. "The East, who handled strike negotiations at the grit. What she did all day was "make ability for someone to come in and learn ABC and CBS earlier this year. "There are sure the TV's are tuned to the right chan- about the business is limited," says one fewer journeymen in the business. You get nel and keep the coffee going," as well as for a news ahead and suddenly find you have noproducer respected the show. and "It's a little like bit member where to go." Salaries range all over the phones delivering answering being a For does all Maher of her steel the and eagerness, scripts. industry watching it all lot, from $11,000 for a beginning producconfess that these duties do not always fall apart. It's a very bad time." tion assistant in a small market, to about offer a stimulating challenge. "The phone Harder times can be traced to a climatic $75,000 for a correspondent in a city like does get to be a pain after a while," shift in the industry. All three netBoston, to at least $100,000 for a networks have recently been transformed by work correspondent. Only a select and she says. news-divisio- 5 " - J JL pTJ V DDDD V run Jl mid-1990- s, Economies dim job prospects in television V one-perso- rough-and-tumb- n le d ld 24 NEWSWEEK ON CAMPUS OCTOBER 1987 |