But the first upfront presentation by the new NBCUniversal News Group, at a luncheon at the New York Public Library on Thursday, put on a happy face, making light of problems and playing up strengths.
Toward the end of the presentation, Matt Lauer, the co-anchor of “Today” whose tenure has been the subject of news coverage this week, strode out on stage with his co-anchor, Savannah Guthrie.
“I would like to tackle a teeny white elephant in the room,” Mr. Lauer said as many of the 400 people in the audience leaned in. “We hate being the news.”
“From the bottom of my heart, I promise to spend all my time and energy the next several weeks and months trying to keep Savannah out of the headlines,” Mr. Lauer said. His jocular remark drew appreciative laughter.
“But you said all press is good press,” Ms. Guthrie said. Mr. Lauer replied, “Yeah, that didn’t work out.”
More seriously, Mr. Lauer said, “We want to go back to being the most-watched morning program — and least talked-about morning program.”
Mr. Lauer also earned laughter from the agency executives in the audience for a remark he made at the end of the presentation, after a performance by Apollo Roberts, a sleight-of-hand artist known as the Gentleman Thief, in which he and Ms. Guthrie took part.
“You knew you were coming here to get your pockets picked,” Mr. Lauer said. “You just didn’t know it was literal.”
After the presentation, a reporter asked Mark Miller, executive vice president for advertising sales at the NBCUniversal News Group, part of the NBCUniversal division of Comcast, when executives had decided to address the “Today” situation in a lighthearted fashion rather than ignore it and whether they had been pleased with the positive response from the audience.
“I don’t think we want to make any comments on the record,” Mr. Miller replied, adding that he would be happy to provide them “once we talk to the press guys.”
Later, Megan Kopf, vice president for public relations for “Today,” answered in a statement the question asked of Mr. Miller.
“It’s no secret that the ‘Today’ show has been in the press recently,” Ms. Kopf said, “and we decided to bring it up in our own way.”
Ms. Guthrie, approached after the presentation, said: “Everything’s good. We’re hanging in. It’s better than the press would have you believe.” Mr. Lauer, with a smile, said his banter came “off the top of my head.”
Patricia Fili-Krushel, chairwoman at the NBCUniversal News Group, alluded to the “Today” situation in her opening remarks when she talked about “why the press is just so fascinated with us.”
Needless to say, she did not discuss how or why “Today” had fallen from first place in the morning show ratings race, nor did she talk about the search for a new president for NBC News to succeed Steve Capus, who resigned on Feb. 1. But she called “Today” “more than a television show” and lauded it has having “the most upscale audience on morning television.”
“We are really pleased with the direction it’s headed,” Ms. Fili-Krushel said.
She played up the benefits of advertising not only during “Today” on weekday mornings, but also on shows that run opposite “Today” on two other channels that are part of the NBCUniversal News Group: “Morning Joe” on MSNBC and “Squawk Box” on CNBC. Combined, the three have an audience of 43 million, Ms. Fili-Krushel said.
In addition to Ms. Fili-Krushel and Mr. Miller, the audience heard from Peter Naylor, executive vice president for ad sales at NBC News Digital, who discussed plans to bring back in the summer the msnbc.com Web address that disappeared in July 2012 at the end of a partnership between NBC News and Microsoft.
At that time, msnbc.com was renamed NBCNews.com; the MSNBC channel is now found at tv.msnbc.com. MSNBC will again have “online platforms and mobile platforms to call its very own” under the MSBNC.com rubric, Mr. Naylor said, adding that a redesign of NBCnews.com is scheduled for the fourth quarter.
And in keeping with the theme of talking up “Today,” Mr. Naylor said the show’s Web site, today.com, would be “getting a fully functioning digital studio” of its own, to be housed at Studio 1A at 30 Rockefeller Center.
“Today” was also represented on stage at the presentation by Willie Geist, Kathie Lee Gifford, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker. (Lest there be speculation about the absence of the show’s news reader, Natalie Morales, Mr. Lauer told the audience she was in Vatican City, covering the papal election.)
A phalanx of other NBCUniversal News Group anchors and reporters attended, among them Maria Bartiromo, Mika Brzezinski, Jim Cramer, David Gregory, Tyler Mathisen, Chris Matthews, Lawrence O’Donnell, Rebecca Quick, Carl Quintanilla, Joe Scarborough, Andrew Ross Sorkin (who also works for The New York Times), Alex Wagner and Brian Williams.
The NBCUniversal News Group presentation was the most recent entry on a lengthy list of upfront presentations — so named because they take place ahead of the coming fall television season — for 2013-14. Many presentations are taking place earlier than usual as networks and channels pull forward their annual efforts to draw ad dollars.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/15/business/media/today-show-anchor-lauer-jokes-about-low-ratings.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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