Word: sauter
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...lose it. Last week Stringer, 44, was named president of CBS News, the third person to hold that post in less than a year. Last December Edward Joyce was ousted and replaced by his boss and predecessor, Van Gordon Sauter. Nine months later Sauter himself was forced out after Tisch wrested control of the company from then Chairman Thomas Wyman. The appointment of Stringer, a highly regarded 18-year veteran of CBS News, brought cheer to most staffers and may have finally signaled an end to a painful period of turmoil at TV's most prestigious news division...
...that role Tisch is sure to be forceful. He is, as one CBS board member puts it, "a tough, gut fighter who wants his way." One of the first things Tisch wanted was the resignation of CBS News Division President Van Gordon Sauter, 51, a close ally of Wyman's who had drawn increasing criticism within CBS for eroding his division's cherished autonomy and injecting too much show biz into the news. According to one network insider, Paley and Tisch ousted Sauter without conferring with the board of directors' management committee, a move that irked members of that group...
Much of the news division's rancor had focused on Sauter, an 18-year CBS veteran who climbed from news division president to executive vice president of the Broadcast Group, but who also took back the news division title after the incumbent president, Edward Joyce, was shunted aside last December. CBS journalists were scathing about the role they felt that Sauter, a former journalist, had played in adding dollops of entertainment value to the news side. In particular, he drew scorn for hiring Phyllis George, a onetime Miss America, as an anchor for the ailing Morning News; George was later...
...Wyman, brought in from Pillsbury in 1980 as CBS Founder William S. Paley's hand-picked successor. (Indeed, Wyman and other top executives are guaranteed lucrative severance packages if any single interest acquires more than 25% of CBS's voting stock.) Close behind, say insiders, could be Van Gordon Sauter, the president of CBS News, whom many have blamed for the stumbling performance of the Morning News...
...Sauter defends the network's move. "As we attempted to make the broadcast more competitive," he said, "it became apparent that we were moving further and further away from the roots of the news division and what the news division does well." The network is also trying to placate affiliate stations, which have grown impatient with CBS's inability to deliver a competitive morning show. One major outlet, Atlanta's WAGA-TV, has already announced that it will cancel the CBS Morning News this fall. Other stations are threatening to follow suit...