‘AMERICAN JOURNAL’ REDONE: IN A LOFT, WITH AN EDGE

When “American Journal” opened its third season on the day after Labor Day, rubbing their eyes didn’t help viewers.

Gone was the gracious, flowing “Kodak moment” opening sequence. Instead, it was a nighttime-on-the-town blur of images projected on three-dimensional surfaces and urgent, updated theme music. New slogan: “News at the speed of life.”

The new set, where anchor Nancy Glass presides from an S-shaped desk, is post-industrial brick and antiqued I-beams. Glass, whose blond hair, light complexion and pale blue eyes make her a lighting technician’s nightmare, pauses for reflection when asked to describe the color scheme.

“It’s, uh, rust. It’s ... a loft. It’s sort of lofty, rusty and darkish,” she says. Praised as an interviewer, she lauds the new “split-screen editing,” juxtaposing footage and interview subject.

Executive producers Sheila Sitomer and Charles Lachman, both co-executive producers of their King World sister show “Inside Edition,” insist the changes in “American Journal” are fundamental.

“These are not cosmetic changes,” Lachman says. “We’re responding to the marketplace [demand] for a fast-paced, hipper, younger-targeted magazine show ... that doesn’t turn off our older viewers but that’s designed to attract new viewers.”

“What ‘American Journal’ was before, some people likened to the old Charles Kuralt series,” Sitomer adds. “It was mild-mannered, a nice show--not exactly the show people would say it’s the one they’ve got to see.”

When Sitomer and Lachman took over in mid-February, they picked up the pace with more stories and tighter editing, more music, staff and more of that indefinable thing called “edge.”

“We believed that the show was burdened by too soft a feel,” Lachman says. “We’re getting away from feature-oriented stories and more news-oriented stories that are video-driven. We like to call the show a ‘pop news’ program. These are the water-cooler stories that people talk about.”

“Journal,” which debuted in September, 1993, was conceived as a bookend for King World’s “Inside Edition,” and in some cities--Los Angeles, Atlanta, San Diego, and Hartford, Conn.--the two air back to back.

Keeping the shows distinctive, fresh and competitive is a major task for both staffs. “Do you know how many O.J. Simpson stories we’ve done between the two shows? Four hundred, 500,” Sitomer says.

Even during the April-May “O.J. burnout” phase, when DNA evidence debates threatened to narcotize even the most devoted trial watcher, the King World shows prevailed. “We counter-programmed,” Sitomer says.

The Simpson trial also figures in the changes “American Journal” has undergone.

“It’s been an amazing, amazing story,” Lachman says. “It’s also no secret that a lot of viewers have gone to cable, and we’re anxious to see our universe go back to where it was ... before the trial started.”

“We’ve also noticed that they come back in droves when you have something new on O.J.,” Sitomer adds. “Despite the fact that we’ve got a flashy open now, and a whiz-bang set, we’re still going to have to find great stories and tell them very well.” [For example, on the eve of the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame being opened in Cleveland, Glass was sent there to anchor riverfront.)

There’s another change in the syndicated landscape on the horizon. Next year, the 25-year-old prime-time access rule goes away. The rule limited network affiliates in the Top 50 markets to three hours of network programming in the four prime-time hours.

The rule began an era of prosperity for syndicators and shows such as “Jeopardy,” “Wheel of Fortune” (both King World shows), as well as the syndicated magazines.

“It’s going to be a more competitive environment,” Lachman acknowledges. “We just have to be better at it. And we will be.”