ABC News to cut half its domestic correspondents, close bricks-and-mortar bureaus [Updated]

As part of the deep cuts announced this week at ABC News, the network plans to close all of its physical bureaus around the country except Washington and halve the number of its domestic correspondents.

ABC News President David Westin confirmed in an interview Friday that the network's ranks of bureau correspondents, which currently number several dozen, would be cut in half and be replaced with "digital" journalists who would be expected to shoot and edit their own stories.

“We will have as many total journalists as we do now,” he said.

Although the network will keep a minimal staff presence in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Boston, it will shut down its bricks-and-mortar bureaus there and ask its remaining employees to work from the local affiliates. The Washington bureau will remain open, but its size will be substantially reduced.

[Updated at 1:10 p.m.: Kate O'Brian, ABC's senior vice president of news, said that although the network eventually plans to shut down its physical bureaus in the long term, it is still examining all of its leases and is not going to immediately vacate all offices. The news division has not yet approached affiliates about housing network correspondents, but has found that model works in Denver and Detroit.]

The mood was grim in Los Angeles, the largest bureau outside of Washington. The 40-plus staffers were told this week that only a few producers would remain and only two correspondents would be assigned to cover the West, down from a total of six who work out of Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Many functions that had been done out of the bureau will be handled by a “logistics desk” in New York. Demoralized employees, who did not want to be quoted by name for fear of losing their jobs, said the severity of the cuts would make it nearly impossible to swarm major stories such as the perennial wildfires in Southern California.

Westin said the network would cope with the reduced manpower on breaking news stories by hiring freelance crews and making use of its expanded team of digital journalists, staffers who would be able to handle multiple tasks. Although a majority of stories will still be covered by traditional four-person crews, Westin said he expected a “plurality” of pieces would be done by people shooting and editing their own video. The digital journalists will be stationed in two-person teams around the country.

“I’m sure we will learn more as we go forward, but we have enough experience to be quite confident that we can not only maintain but in some cases enhance our editorial quality,” he said.

This week, the network began sending out letters offering voluntary buyouts to all nonunion employees, and is posting openings of the new digital journalism positions.

“This is a really big change,” Westin said. “Some people are going to embrace it and some people will believe it won’t work. I respect both those groups of people. It’s a question of who wants to work here in the way we’re going to change the place. ... I’m quite confident we will have enough people who are enthusiastic and up to the task.”

-- Matea Gold

Comments

[farmer]

Free Markets will work every time. I don't feel sorry for Obama's mouth piece.

[speedy]

two words for abc news---FOX NEWS

[jack brady]

since much of recent abc news has been pretend, the creation of imaginary bureau's would seem appropriate.

[Common Sense]

Stop beating a dead horse-free T.V. is over.

[jopiper]

Looks like all of the mass media libs are getting the change they voted for. We welcome them. Now maybe you can find some real stories about how things are, not the obama propaganda you have been spreading. He says things are getting better. ABC employees.......... Are they?

[Dave W]

ABC "News"? I thought they were the All Barack Channel. Who'da thunk they were a news organization?

[speedy]

here in detroit abc affiliate wxyz fired the best investigative reporter in the country, steve wilson. wxyz has also hired reporters as replacements that never went to journalism school. wxyz has gone from #1 to zero.

[David R. Block]

In Dallas, the ABC affiliate is not network owned (it is the only Dallas affiliate of a major (or minor, almost)network that is not network owned), so how is that going to work?

[Edson]

Even during the last 10 years in which Obama recently admitted that no new jobs have been created. This has resulted in lower wages and now that the bubble has burst, permanent unemployment. Welcome to the world you've helped to create.

You couldn't have said it better. Unintended consequences, now just wait for health care with uncle in charge. Railroad, FICA, Post office,and on and on.

[Harold McArdle]

Great news! FOX will pick up the best

[Paul]

It is telling that DC is the only place not being downsized. If ever you needed proof that too much unwieldy power and too many special interests were gathered in one place, here's your proof. DC isn't where the action should be. It should be out there in the different cities and states, but instead government runs in such a way now that all our eggs are in one basket.

Sign of the times.

[areader]

Many of us in fly-over country rejoice at the demise of the mainstream media. They did it to themselves. . .

[DaSicilian]

Heard there may be some openings at the Fox network....:>)

[J Droll]

How's that "Hope and change" working for you folks? You've sure got the change...how about hope? If you're a liberal, maybe you're learning something. On the off chance that any of you are conservative, well, you should have known better. Elections matter. Experience counts. So does character.

[ByteRider]

Talk about one of the worst run networks. Good riddance, ABCommunist news!

Of course, all you'd have to do to make things right, play with the big boys, is to stop the maddening, moronic liberal garbage you spew over the airwaves. I once turned to your station and accidentally thought I was watching a Saturday Nite Live news skit.

No, I'm not exaggerating.. I really though I was watching an SNL news skit! I don't recall the anchor except it was a women working very hard to out-do Tammy Fae Baker in the makeup department.

[plaasjaapie]

So ABC has finally realised that you don't need reporters on the spot to generate the sorts of stories they peddle. Good for them! :-D

[Xdem]

Today the overall quality of news improved.

Goodbye and good riddance.

[Htos1]

...and so it begins.The endgame will be a foamy mouthed begging session for a taxpayer bailout.The news company will then be a Pravda,and cheerlead a crackdown against citizens who understand the unconstitutionality of the coming paradigm in network news.

[Kumo]

ABC_
Too much of Obama's Socalism, including George S.

[JoeAmerica]

ABC has been pushing the socialism junk for so long they just assume the audience is just too stupid to understand. I guess Obama needs to bail out ABC and make it union/government owned just like GM and we the tax payers can cough up the money we should have been paying for ABC's cr*ppy reporting.

[berndtc]

I guess this means they are going to start making up the news just like FOX (FAUX) NEWS always did.

[Good for the Goose]

Doing more with less. Join the crowd. This will be good for the industry. They will get lean and able to compete. They won't have to pay the "kid with the camera" as much and through hard knocks the "kids" quality will improve. As far as the "wild fires in California" the majority of us will survive without stellar coverage. Just dig in the basket of past footage and show a plane dumping red compound on the fire to put it out. Show a sweaty fire fighter and a home owner dousing his roof with a water hose.

[Ed R]

I don't mean to be mean but I don't have a lot of sympathy for the "journalists". America is not a left-wing country and ABC has, like NBC and to some extend CBS, consistently esoused a left-wing agenda in their reporting. As they continued to to so, more and more Americans looked elsewhere for less biased coverage and as a result, fewer and fewer advertisers were willing to pay for advertising. This is self-inflicted on their part. I hope they fire some of the higher ups that have controlled the hiring and editorial controls and put in more real journalists that can provider objective reporting. If not, then ABC will continue to fail.

[Geepa]

ABC - I like to call it 'The Obama Network'. Now, as Obama's numbers fall, so do ABC's. Is it a coincidence? I'm just sayin'.

[DAVID ALLEN]

“We will have as many total journalists as we do now,” - which would be exactly zero. They haven't had "journalists" in quite some time. Hacks and preeners yes, but journalists sadly no.