David Bohrman Leaves CNN

TVNewser is reporting that David Bohrman is leaving CNN after 14 years. His farewell to staff is after the jump. You can follow the link for the full article.

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Candy Crowley: CNN DC Holiday Party

The Washington Times, Stephanie Green and Elizabeth Glover, spoke to Candy Crowley days after CNN's Washington bureau holiday party.

The CNN Washington bureau held its holiday soiree at Nationals Park Friday night, but the network's formidable senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley, told us she's trying to be good and steer clear of the usual culinary delights that tempt partygoers this time of year.

"I am carbohydrates girl," she explains of her most vexing vice. "Bagels, pasta."

Not anymore.

Thanks to disciplined diet and exercise, Ms. Crowley has dropped nearly five dress sizes this year, she says, and hopes to lose another three to reach her ultimate personal best.

Her weight loss has been grist for blogosphere chatter, and Miss Crowley set the record straight in the Los Angeles Times on Nov. 18 by confirming to writer James Rainey that she did not undergo gastric bypass surgery.

Speaking to us in her office on Friday, she says she's been motivated by the "outside support" from even "total strangers" who have noticed her new look.

Her new look may be just in time for a new job. Sources tell us that Ms. Crowley has "been talked to" by CNN executives about taking the reins of Sunday morning's "State of the Union" program.

The current host, John King, will be moving soon to a new 7 p.m. weekday show to fill the void left by Lou Dobbs, the feisty former host of "Lou Dobbs Tonight."

If Ms. Crowley takes the new gig, she will be the only woman to anchor a Sunday morning public affairs program, a proposition she finds "lovely," considering she started as a journalist at a time when women reporters were scant, especially on the political beat.

David Bohrman, the CNN Washington bureau chief and senior vice president, tells us that internal and external candidates likely will be considered, but that it is "relatively" early in the process and there are "no front-runners."

For now, team CNN is focusing on more pressing matters. A little elf at the CNN holiday bash tells us that the usually restrained Wolf Blitzer, host of CNN's "The Situation Room," and political strategist and CNN commentator Donna Brazile provided the backup vocals on a karaoke rendition of the Temptations' classic "My Girl."

Source: The Washington Times, Green & Glover

Thanks to Ed Henry's tweets and Twitpics, here are a few pictures from the holiday party:

Donna Brazile at home plate

Inside the Nats' dugout

CNN's @johnking batter up at Nationals Park

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The First 100 Days and NAB 2009

Time published a photo essay for the President's first 100 Days with a behind the scenes photo essay. Above are two photos that caught my eye. The first is a seating chart from a correspondents luncheon. In attendance at the luncheon were two anchors from CNN: Wolf Blitzer and John King. The second is the result of a few "no blackberry zones" within the White House. Can you imagine the anxiety of those that have to give up their communication devices?

A few highlights from NAB 2009:

First, RTNDA has posted the Insiders’ Look at Washington session that was moderated by John King.

Next, David Bohrman spoke with Broadcasting and Cable:

You are going to be presenting at the NAB Show in Las Vegas next week, can you talk about what you will be discussing there?

I am going to really focus on politics and innovation, and a little bit of evolution of that over the last 50 years. I have some interesting clips going back, from ‘56 and 1960, and there are clear echoes in some of the coverage we did in 2008.

I just looked back at the clip of Douglas Edwards and Univac predicting the 1956 election, and trying to explain how computers work to viewers. Match that up against our Magic Wall with John King, and the level of production and graphics and all the things we have learned over the years and the boundaries we have pushed.

Our first toe into the water with this was in 2004, when I pushed to do the election coverage at the NASDAQ, where we had 72 screens. Visually, it looked very much like 1956 or ‘60, where back then they had a wall of vote boards, and they were fixed-this one was the West, this square was California, there were numbers that were changing but there was no flexibility in it. So we took this idea of a big expansive wall of votes, and brought it to the floor of the NASDAQ, where you had electronic screens, but at the snap of your finger that would also become several live video streams and exit poll graphics.

That sort of environmental graphic look really lead to The Situation Room. It has sort of begun to change daytime cable-very different than a traditional evening newscast with an anchor and a full screen graphic. Then we went with that in 2006 and 2008, where we have multiple vote board and pie charts on the walls, and interactive data, and John King drilling into Indiana, explaining why we are unable to project it while our competitors have, and here is why. The tools have allowed us to be clearer and better.

Which of the technologies that you used during the election got the best reception?

I think the wall with John King. It is a little odd that we call it the "Magic Wall," but that is what it is called. It is one piece of technology that doesn't intimidate or get in the way of what you are trying to explain, whether it is showing Google Earth on a map or county-by-county votes. It was probably the key and most important technology.

...

How do you think John King has been doing on his new Sunday show?

I think he has been doing great. It is very early in the genesis of the program. I have created a lot of programs over the last 30 years, and I think it is off to a great start. There are some things I know I want to tinker with. Michelle Jaconi, who is the executive producer, has really leapt into it, has very quickly figured out the systems at CNN. And the program is beginning to have a voice that is clearly John's, with a little bit of Michelle mixed in.

I have a list of things I would like to see it do and evolve, but I think it is the program to watch on Sunday mornings, and as we evolve it more and more it will become irresistible.

One of the things I remember from my 13 years at ABC was that Roone Arledge wanted to own Sunday morning, to create the Sunday morning newsmagazine newspaper that modulated and had the biggest guests and interesting stories. I think State of the Union has all the makings of that.

I know he continues to use the Magic Wall on the show. Will we be seeing more tech on the show going forward?

John was very skeptical of the wall, but it just became an extension of his brain. Whether he has the chairman of the joint chiefs or General Odierno [commander of the multinational force in Iraq], you can use those tools and have some of the guests come on and illustrate things and explain their perspective and point of view. It is one of the signature aspects of the program, but it would be a mistake to think it revolves around the wall. It revolves around John; he has a lot of depth and a lot of abilities.

What does CNN have planned for Barack Obama's 100th day in office?

We promised that we would keep them honest, and we will take a look, big stock, at what everyone has been doing-the president, the administration, how congress is doing, how everyone who got elected is doing. Did they live up to their promise? Did they do what they said? What haven't they done? Basically, it will be a report card on how they are doing.

I think it is important for us to keep reminding the viewers of what people promised to do, and reminding elected officials what they said they would do, and then it is our job to keep track and let viewers make decisions. I think it is part of the core of our responsibility to check up on those guys and see how they are doing.

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The Day The News Went Away

Denver's Rocky Mountain News has been put to bed for the last time. The 150 year old newspaper printed their final edition today. Many other newspapers face bankruptcies and layoffs. "Dead tree media" is feeling the pains of a recession and new technology. CNN's David Bohrman spoke with The Miami Herald while he was in Florida at the We Media conference. Below are excerpts from the article where he warns that TV news needs to change the way that they do business... or else.

TV news must embrace new media, CNN exec warns, Using the Internet and social-networking sites is essential to the survival of television news, a CNN senior vice president told a media conference in Miami.

The fact sends chills down television reporters' spines even as they compulsively repeat it: Last year, earthquakes in Japan, China, Los Angeles and San Francisco were first reported not on TV but on the Internet's Twitter social-networking site.

''It tells you something about the far-reaching tentacles of Twitter and Facebook and the other social-networking sites,'' muses David Bohrman, CNN's Washington bureau chief and senior vice president. ``And it tells you something about some of the challenges facing TV news.''

Amid the daily obituaries for the newspaper business, where bankruptcies and layoffs have become a grim daily routine, there's been comparatively little notice that television news confronts many of the same problems: declining audiences, aging demographics, fierce competition from new digital media and a broken business model.

''Everything needs to be deconstructed,'' Bohrman says. ``Everything is going to be changing.''

Bohrman told The Miami Herald that he's skeptical of most of the worst-case scenarios, including the collapse of local news. ''Local newscasts, when they're good, are the centerpiece at most stations,'' he argues. ``And I think that there's a largely untapped mother lode of hyper-local information that stations can use to good effect. You want to know if that road two blocks over is under repair, if you'll be able to get to Safeway or not. I'm intrigued by that. I don't see anyone seriously accessing it yet, but someone will.''

Even so, Bohrman acknowledges these are tumultuous times for television news. One sign, he says, was the way cable-news nets took over most of the heavy lifting during last year's presidential campaign.

''I think we did 30 primary nights last year, wall-to-wall coverage for each one,'' he says. ``The broadcast networks did something on Super Tuesday, and they had some little cut-ins into their regular programming a few nights, but mostly viewers had to turn to cable for that coverage. And they did. We did some great ratings last year.''

And along the way, he says, there were some great lessons about how television news can attract that elusive younger audience. One of the most profound: Instead of keeping the new digital media at arm's length, television should embrace them.

CNN has led the way, he says, with its sponsorship of two presidential-primary debates in which the questions were asked not by reporters but by viewers who submitted their own videos to YouTube. Result: a 2,200 percent jump in viewers aged 18 to 34.

''We had 407,000 viewers in that demo for the first YouTube debate,'' Bohrman exclaims. ``CNN never had that many young viewers for anything, not in its whole life. We went with the new digital media, and guess what? All the younger viewers came with them.''

CNN has continued the practice, adding Twitter to some of its news shows and partnering with Facebook for simultaneous video-and-viewer-commentary during its coverage of President Obama's address to Congress this week.

''People like to gather to watch a big event,'' Bohrman says. ``Twitter and Facebook allow them to do that and share their reactions.''

Photo credit: ALEXIA FODERE

Ryan Seacrest's radio show turned five this week and several celebrities called to congratulation him. Among the callers... CNN's Larry King.

CNN's Senior White House Correspondent, Ed Henry, does an hour long radio program on CNN Radio: 44 With Ed Henry. He takes viewers calls (including Keith the hair dresser); is briefly joined by Lisa Desjardin; spoke about his own mortgage issues; and talking to George Clooney.

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Cameras & Screens

In an article posted on Broadcasting & Cable, David Bohrman discusses the touch screen map that has become the gadget to have on primary night. Here are a few excerpts from the article:

“I've sort of always been on the hunt for new technologies that can help us explain stories,” Bohrman said.

In this election cycle, CNN has taken interactivity to a new level with screens that respond to fingertip manipulation, for example allowing national correspondent John King to quickly sketch delegate count scenarios on a map of the United States. The multi-touch units from Perceptive Pixel also let reporters and anchors move and stretch images at the touch of a finger.

“It's basically an iPhone on steroids,” Bohrman said. “I mean, it's just about as close to Minority Report as you can get,” he added, referring to a scene in the movie where the Tom Cruise character sorts through a mass of information by waving his hands. “It's really an extension of the correspondent's mind -- or hand -- right into the data.”

The latest CNN All Access Podcast features Robert Proctor, a CNN production photographer. He gives you a behind the scenes look at "jib" camera used. The podcast is available at www.cnn.com/podcasts or can be downloaded here or here.

Here's this week's Mystery Journalist clue:

Do you know who this CNN journalist is?
Feel free to post your guess in the comments.

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The Wisdom of Crowds

Have you ever heard of "The Wisdom of Crowds?" It's a theory that a large diverse group of people can make relatively accurate predictions of the future. For instance, those contests where they ask you to guess how many jelly beans are in a container, many times if you take all of the responses and average them, you'll end up shockingly close to the actual number.

CNN appears to be using this philosophy with the CNN Political Market. (No jelly beans involved, though.) Think of it as a fantasy political stock market. You sign into the CNN Political Market and get $5,000.00 to start your portfolio. Available for trade are options on a variety of political questions- for instance: Who will be chosen as the Democratic vice presidential candidate?

You can buy “shares” on who you think will be the correct answer. The price of the shares are determined by the market (what percentage of people agree with you.) As other people buy shares on the same issue, the percentage on the person you selected rises or falls which causes the value of your investment to either gain or lose money.

The goal of CNN Political Market is to combine the opinions of a diverse group of people to try and predict the probability of an event occurring or the value of something.

Why is this important? Because more often than not, a diverse group of people or "crowd" will generate a more accurate prediction than an individual or a small group of "like-minded" or "single-discipline" folks.
In business, politics, and culture, this can have big ramifications:

• Predictions often turn out to be more accurate than surveys and polls;
• More accurate forecasts affect how marketing dollars are spent, how many widgets should be built in the first run, etc.;
• Decision making is more democratized, giving everyone input where they may not have had it before;
• Markets can serve as on-going indicators for key performance
  metrics.

source: CNN.com

The money isn't real and there are no prizes for making your portfolio profitable, but it might be interesting to see how the market opinion shifts from day to day. To give it a try, visit: http://politicalmarket.cnn.com/

The latest CNN All Access podcast features a behind the scenes look at the Republican debate held in California. The podcast is hosted by Debate Executive Producer and CNN SVP David Bohrman.

The podcast is available for download here or here.

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Mystery Journalist

This week's Mystery Journalist was Gary Tuchman.

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Secret To Success

What's the secret to success at CNN? Other than being on good terms with Jon Klein...well, it could quite possibly be working on ABC News' World News Now broadcast. Never heard of it? Well, you must have never found yourself channel flipping in the middle of the night. ABC's World News Now is their overnight news program- but it's nothing like World News with Charlie Gibson.

World News Now is celebrating their 16th birthday this week and they've been showing clips and interviews with former anchors and producers. Monday morning's broadcast included an interview with former CNN anchor Aaron Brown. Did you know that Aaron Brown was one of the first anchors of the overnight broadcast?

He's not the only person who found their way from ABC to CNN. CNN Washington Bureau Chief, David Bohrman once produced World News Now. He was on the set Monday discussing his time on the program.

Did you see another familiar CNN face in that clip? Anderson Cooper also anchored the World News Now broadcast at one time.

While we're on the topic of ABC news, did you wonder why CNN rebroadcast an ABC debate? President of CNN/U.S, Jon Klein, explained the decision on Howard Kurtz' Reliable Sources on Sunday.

I just couldn't stay away from politics completely. I tried. Anyway, three video clips and I'm done for the night. Have a good week.

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CNN Gears Up For the Iowa Caucuses

Don't forget to tune in to CNN's special programming tonight at 8 p.m. that leads into a special midnight edition of "Larry King Live."

David Bohrman, vice president of news and production and the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for CNN, is shown with the new multi-touch screen. The screen allows two people to work simultaneously to explain complicated subjects, like Iowa caucusing. Mr. Bohrman moved to NYC for the next few weeks to lead the primary coverage.

Wolf Blitzer in the state-of-the-art CNN Election Center in NYC last night.
Images by Ted E. Pio-Roda for CNN/2008.