CNN Axes ‘Newsstand,’ Adds Shows for Hemmer, Greenfield

CNN is bracing for a round of staff cuts and reorganization this week, but in the meantime, some of its future programming plans are becoming clearer.

One casualty will be “CNN Newsstand,” a newsmagazine launched in 1998 to make use of resources at the sister Time Inc. magazines, including Time and Fortune, and to draw viewers during periods when there was no breaking news. Audiences never warmed up to the high-budget program, which got off to a bad start when its story on poison gas use during the Vietnam War had to be retracted. Some version of the CNN and Time collaboration will remain, however.

Among the programming plans for the near future, Bill Hemmer, a CNN daytime anchor who drew notice during the recent postelection coverage, will get his own show weeknights at 7. The half-hour program, “CNN Tonight,” will be followed by the political talk show “Spin Room.”

Political analyst Jeff Greenfield is also getting his own show, under a new multiyear contract hammered out late last week. Under the new deal, Greenfield also will remain a regular presence on the weekday “Inside Politics.”

Details of his new show have not been finalized, but sources said the two sides are talking about a daily program along the lines of the election-related show Greenfield has been moderating this fall.

Greenfield calls what he is trying to do a “conversation . . . using people from different walks of life and not experts on the topic of the day.” And unlike much of the political rhetoric heard on the cable news channels these days, he insists that there will be “no spin at all.”

Finally, sources said, “Showbiz Today” will no longer air as a regular afternoon program, but anchors Laurin Sydney and Jim Moret will provide entertainment news throughout the day.