Sawyer’s ABC Deal: Star Value : Television: Some lament the ‘Hollywoodization’ of news, but others say the ‘PrimeTime’ anchor’s a solid journalist with ratings-power worth her estimated $6-million contract.

If the recent bidding war for Diane Sawyer resembled negotiations for the next Tom Hanks movie or the signing of a first-round draft pick, there is a reason. At a time when TV newsmagazines are increasingly competitive--and increasingly important to their networks--the handful of news stars who are perceived as having the “marquee value” to draw an audience can command superstar salaries.

“This is just one more sign of the ‘Hollywoodization’ of news,” said former NBC News President Reuven Frank. “It’s the logical extension of the days when Barbara Walters was criticized for making $1 million a year when she moved to ABC News in the 1970s. If the network news divisions today are expected to make big money in prime time with newsmagazines, then why shouldn’t Diane Sawyer make as much money as (basketball star) Shaquille O’Neal?”

Frank worries that “viewers are losing their differentiation between journalists and entertainment figures. But I don’t blame Diane Sawyer for the trend.”

*

ABC’s re-signing of Sawyer last week (at an estimated $6 million a year, double her previous salary) to be an anchor on three different prime-time newsmagazines also troubles some correspondents and producers, who worry about the role of yeoman news gatherers in “star vehicles.”

“If Diane Sawyer is making millions of dollars and contributing big pieces to several newsmagazines, where does that leave everybody else?” asks one network news producer. “It seems as if we’re headed for a system where there are a handful of superstars, and everybody else is field troops.”

But network executives note that Sawyer is a serious TV journalist as well as a news “star.”

“In order to be a ‘star’ in news, you have to have intellect, journalistic ability, drive and something called presence,” said ABC News Vice President Joanna Bistany. “Ted Koppel, Peter Jennings, Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer all have it. It’s not just a matter of performance on the air--you have to be a journalist who elicits confidence and credibility.”

Although ABC executives said Sawyer plans to continue some reporting in the field, it appears that her “marquee value” as an anchor was a major factor in her new deal--as it was in the proposal made to her by NBC News President Andrew Lack.

NBC is said to have planned to make Sawyer the centerpiece of a new four-night-a-week newsmagazine series. NBC anchors Tom Brokaw, Katie Couric, Jane Pauley and others were to be involved, but the project is now on hold, according to NBC News executives.

The details of Sawyer’s work for ABC are still to be worked out, but the plans are for her to be a major presence on at least three nights of prime-time newsmagazines, which eventually all may air at 10 p.m.

Sawyer will continue as co-anchor with Sam Donaldson on “PrimeTime Live,” ABC’s Thursday newsmagazine. In addition, she will team with “20/20” co-anchor Barbara Walters--a frequent competitor with Sawyer for big-name interviews on their respective magazine shows--to anchor “Turning Point,” a Wednesday newsmagazine debuting March 9. (Jennings also will be an occasional anchor on “Turning Point.”) And ABC sources expect Sawyer to be named co-anchor with Forrest Sawyer on the Monday newsmagazine “Day One.”

Meanwhile, she will continue as a regular substitute anchor for Jennings on ABC’s “World News Tonight.”

ABC executives said that Sawyer will not necessarily be anchoring all three shows every week, and they said that they intend to “cross-promote” other ABC journalists too--with, for example, a timely Barbara Walters interview possibly airing on a newsmagazine that airs earlier in the week than Friday night’s “20/20.”

“There’s going to be a saturation point reached sometime--we don’t know when--among newsmagazines,” said ABC’s Bistany. “We are looking at all of our top talent to see how we can build the identity of ABC’s newsmagazines so that we come out winners.”

Another idea under discussion at ABC, sources said, is to have some kind of central “booking unit” to go after some newsmakers rather than having the various news programs competing against each other in addition to other news outlets. (How practical that idea is with the biggest names in the news business and what it would mean for the staffing and identities of various newsmagazines, however, remains to be seen.)

Meanwhile, some network observers wonder whether the competitive bids for Sawyer’s services--with CBS offering a “Nightline-style” newscast for syndication and Fox owner Rupert Murdoch reportedly offering $7 million to anchor a post-football news program like “60 Minutes”--resulted in a feeding frenzy that led to ABC paying more than she was worth.

“She’s certainly a major talent on-air, but there’s no proof yet that viewers are going to want to watch her three nights a week,” said one former news executive.

But others point out that, as with the bidding for sports and entertainment stars, ABC came out ahead simply by preventing her from becoming a competitor.

“If Diane had gone to NBC, all you reporters would have written that (ABC News President) Roone Arledge had ‘lost’ her to NBC,” said one ABC News source. “Perception is reality in this business--and that was a factor in ABC’s desire to have her stay.”

“Even if ABC didn’t deploy her on the air, Diane Sawyer is ‘reserve capital’ for the network,” said Everette Dennis, executive director of the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University. “The bidding for her services is simply a further recognition that news is a profit-making enterprise. ABC wouldn’t have paid her this salary if they didn’t think she would generate profits for the network.”