Media Digs Are A Tale Of Haves And Have-Nots

Cable Networks Are Living Large In Denver While Print Outlets Are Watching Every Dollar

by Lisa Caruso

Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008


As some 15,000 members of the media descend on Denver for the Democratic National Convention, the differences between the budget-conscious print press and the new titans of political news coverage, the 24-hour cable news channels, couldn't be starker.

Cable networks CNN and Fox News have both taken over multistory restaurants outside the Pepsi Center, with CNN rechristening the cavernous Brooklyn's eatery the "CNN Grill" and Fox News setting up shop next door in the equally spacious Braun's Bar and Grill. Both networks have studio sets inside and outside their respective restaurant headquarters, plus skyboxes in the Pepsi Center.

Fox News chief political correspondent Carl Cameron called the beefed-up presence "a natural response to the sheer magnitude of the story" of the presidential election and the public's heightened interest in it, as well as to the multiple platforms available to media outlets.

CNN's operation, which a technician pronounced "definitely on the grandest of scales," boasts a full set on the convention floor and two aerial cameras mounted on buildings for views around Denver. The network has also created a miniature version of John King's "magic wall," the high-tech touch-screen map that the chief national correspondent uses to break down election returns.

By contrast, most of the major daily newspapers are pinching pennies, sending fewer staffers to the conventions and working out of Spartan temporary digs. Midsize news services such as Copley and Newhouse, which is closing down after the election, are no-shows.

The Dallas Morning News has deployed half as many people as it did four years ago, said Government Editor Ryan Rusak, although he declined to give exact numbers. But Rusak stressed that the paper is still fielding a "strong contingent, because now is when we need to be prepared to satisfy our readers' interest." To trim expenses, the Morning News isn't spending the $9,000 it would cost to carpet the paper's workspace and is sharing equipment and resources, right down to coffee pots, with fellow Texans at the Houston Chronicle, which is stationed across from the Dallas paper.

The Public Broadcasting System has suffered ongoing budget woes but nonetheless has the same number of staffers on site that it had four years ago. It also has one of the nicest work areas in the four media tents, complete with carpeting, yellow-and-pink potted mums, and solid temporary room dividers instead of the flimsy blue curtains that cordon off most outlets' convention quarters.

Peggy Robinson, the senior producer for the convention, said that PBS is "basically taking advantage of our team" by recruiting journalists from its Denver station to replace those that the network couldn't afford to send from its Arlington, Va., home base. The Denver crew provided the flowers and other decorations, including those in NewsHour anchor Jim Lehrer's office, on the cheap by working its hometown connections. Chris Dee, the production director, said that the tight budget forced him to "beg, borrow, and barter" to outfit the cash-strapped network's space.

But how Dee scored carpeting when most newsies are working on creaky wood floors, he wouldn't say.

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