CBS MUM ABOUT NEWS CHANGES

Like a nightly news promotional spot promising “film at 11,” CBS News President Howard Stringer announced Tuesday that viewers can expect to see significant changes in “The CBS Evening News With Dan Rather” following a year of controversy, massive budget cuts and low ratings.

But Stringer wouldn’t tell what those changes would be.

Stringer’s secretiveness during a question-and-answer session with national television writers and editors at the Redondo Beach Sheraton for CBS’ annual summer press tour caused some disgruntlement.

As one reporter pointed out, asking for specifics about the future of CBS News at a news conference about CBS News was not exactly like demanding the secret formula for Coca-Cola.

Stringer still refused. “I would be (a) lunatic to tell you,” Stringer said. “Television is the highest form of imitation. . . . NBC and ABC will be following me if I was to announce that.”

Stringer said only that “CBS Evening News” would “not be standing still,” and that “we’re not going to be doing anything silly. I mean, you’re not going to see a weatherman on the ‘Evening News.’ . . . It’s sort of a fresh coat of paint.”

Whether ABC and NBC would choose to follow the lead of “CBS Evening News” is an open question (the program tied with ABC’s evening news report for second place in last week’s Nielsen ratings report, but has most frequently been third in recent months). Stringer conceded that the mysterious new fall look of “CBS Evening News” will be in part a response to the low ratings.

Still, Stringer defended the network’s news department and pledged to continue to support Rather in the upcoming season. “There is no alternative to Dan Rather. Dan Rather took us to the top,” Stringer said.

CBS has no plans to bring in a co-anchor to bolster the ratings. He denied rumors that “60 Minutes” anchor Diane Sawyer might join the “Evening News.”

Stringer apologized for publicly scorning the value of ratings in recent months. “I’m sure you’re all rather fed up with me,” he said. “I’ve trod on enough sour grapes to invent my own wine cooler.” Yet he called the current Neilsen ratings system “a dying sample” and said he would judge Rather by his outstanding performance in new People Meter samples instead.

Stringer’s endorsement of the People Meter ratings, the Nielsen company’s new push-button box system which will replace the old Nielsen family diaries in the fall, is unusual for CBS.

Network executives have consistently criticized the new system because the People Meter is predicted to skew ratings to a younger viewership more adaptable to new technology, rather than CBS’ traditional audience, which is slightly older than that of other networks.

Stringer said one People Meter survey found Rather to be the No. 1 evening news anchor.

“From my perspective, I cannot, if you’ll understand, roll over in the face of headlines that say ‘Rather in Third’ or ‘Evening News in Third,’ because I’m desperately afraid it’ll be a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Stringer said.

Stringer blamed the news department’s financial problems--it recently underwent a 10% cut in its $300-million budget--on the changing economics of network television, rather than on the hard-line attitudes of CBS Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Laurence A. Tisch, who took over in January.

“All three networks are going through a difficult time in the industry,” Stringer said. “We are just coming to terms with it. It wouldn’t matter who was chief executive officer when the industry is so fragmented, and the competition is so fierce. We don’t know when it’s going to begin to level off.

Stringer added that no further large budget cuts or layoffs are planned, but said he could offer no “stone-cold promise of never again.”

“I’d rather ‘think’ away our problems than ‘cut’ away our problems,” he said.

Stringer said he did not believe “CBS News Sunday Morning” with Charles Kuralt was in any immediate danger from NBC’s new “Sunday Today.”

CBS’ Sunday news program recently added a weatherman and will add New York Times metropolitan columnist William Geist as a commentator in the 1988-89 season. Stringer added that the broadcast will widen its coverage of the arts.

Along with the “Evening News,” Stringer also defended the network’s consistently low-rated news magazine show “West 57th” as a program which will eventually find its niche.

New CBS News programming will include a documentary for the upcoming season, “The In-The-Red Blues,” on the growth of the American national debt over the past few decades and its affect on the American family. Hosted by Lesley Stahl and Bob Krulwich, the program, will incorporate old footage of the Cleaver family from the 1957-62 series “Leave It to Beaver,” and point out how the Cleaver families goals would have had to change over the years due to the decline of the economy.