By Jennifer Cox

      Confirming rumors, CBS has named Jim Murphy executive producer of the long-ailing "Evening News" with Dan Rather, with the mandate of reviving the show, which is a distant third, having seen a 16 percent decline in viewership in the past year alone.
      Murphy, a senior producer on the show, takes the place of Al Ortiz, who has been pushed over to run this year's election coverage for the network.
    Anticipating Murphy's promotion, Media Life turned to a top industry analyst for some handy tips for Murphy on how to make CBS's "Evening News" a viable contender against leader NBC and ABC. 
    Our analyst is Andrew Tyndall, publisher of the weekly Tyndall Report, which monitors television network news.
      First, says Tyndall, CBS must return to hard news. 
      "For years, CBS has been making a reputation for itself as the ‘hard news’ channel of network television. CBS is much more attune at covering breaking news at home and abroad," he says. "Counter-programming is key."
       Under Ortiz, the  show has moved toward softer features, which Tyndall, among others, argues was a mistake because it put the show in a me-too position against the other two.
    Moreover, says Tyndall, CBS did poorly at it. 
    "ABC and NBC have a better feature format. CBS doesn’t have the expertise in lifestyle features. Features are not their hallmark."
     Tyndall notes that at least part of CBS's problem stems for the lack of major news stories in recent months, and he credits the dearth for much of the ratings decline. But that's not a good reason for abandoning hard news.
     "A crisis, a war, a political scandal-- none of these things would hurt CBS news right now," he says.
     But lacking such a major crisis story, he suggests Murphy focus his energies on offering superior coverage of the upcoming election.  "If the election gets hot, that might help," he says.
      Second, Tyndall suggests CBS work with its affiliates to boost their news coverage. At least part of CBS's problem is is weak viewership for the nightly news shows of affiliates, which means fewer viewers available when the network news comes on.
     He believes the Rather-hosted show could also boost viewer numbers by stepping up coverage of Mexico, Cuba and South America.
    "There’s a big gap in network coverage of these areas," says Tyndall. CBS could reel in a large audience in Los Angeles, Houston and Miami, all key markets, by covering pertinent news from neighboring countries.
    Third, Tyndall suggests that CBS put major muscle behind improving their entire news division, on the argument that a collection of good news shows are ideal platforms to boost other shows in the stable.
   "Cross-promotion is key," says Tyndall. "The strength of ‘Today’ has helped the ‘Nightly News’ considerably, as well as the success of ‘Dateline NBC.'" 
    Tyndall believes CBS could capitalize greatly on the success of "60 Minutes." "Anytime ‘60 Minutes’ breaks a story, there should be a follow-up Monday morning on ‘The Early Show’ and Monday night on the ‘Evening News.’"
    CBS has tried to better its news lineup by introducing "60 Minutes II," which has done well. But it was done so at the expense of the "Evening News," which lost several key executives to the startup.  "They cannibalized from the 'Evening News' to launch 60 minutes II." 
    But even if Murphy and his bosses at CBS were to make all his recommended changes, Tyndall acknowledges they will still have a tough time getting their numbers up.
     For one, he says, as a hard news shop CBS must compete with the all-news cable networks such as CNN during major stories. Those networks weren't around when CBS made its bones in the hard news biz.
     "Today, when a crisis happens, there are more 24-hour-a-day services available on cable. The viewer doesn’t need to wait until 6:30 to get informed," says Tyndall. "There are structural problems with the show’s strengths. During a crisis, they’re competing with CNN, a 24-hour news station. They can’t win."
   There is also the general, ongoing decline of network news. ABC’s "World News Tonight" was down 7 percent and NBC’s "Nightly News" was down 4 percent over the same year that CBS lost 16 percent of its audience.
     

-Jennifer Cox is a staff writer for Media Life.