CBS Raises Stakes in TV’s Broadband News Battle: Top Anchors Will Tackle New Streaming Shows

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorEdward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly were journalism visionaries whose moves at CBS in the 1950s continue to define that company’s news division.

Yet even they might be surprised to see where some of their ideas are heading.CBS News is set to revive two landmark programs created under the auspices of one or both of those broadcasters, “Person to Person” and “CBS Reports,” but retooled for the streaming era.

Norah O’Donnell will launch a new “Person to Person” series of one-on-one interviews with newsmakers and people of interest, while Gayle King is set to kick off a new series of “CBS Reports” documentaries and special reports on February 25 with a deep dive into the death of Trayvon Martin.

Both series will run on the CBS News Steaming Network, part of a large-scale overhaul and expansion of the broadband news hub once known as CBSN that initially debuted in 2014. “Streaming is an iterative process,” says Neeraj Khemlani, co-president of ViacomCBS’ news and stations unit, in an interview, “You’ve got to keep investing.”ViacomCBS is rolling out a reworked streaming outlet that will feature not only many of the journalists known for linear reports on CBS, but also boast thousands of hours of reporting from CBS local stations in major markets ranging from New York to Miami to Detroit.