The Nations Muzak

LAST SUMMER, the gossip column in The Chicago Tribune reported that a news director at the city's ABC owned and operated station hall instructed his staff to pay close attention to USA Today for possible stories. The implication was clear: WLS-TV was looking for a new influx of light, superficial stories to bolster its sagging ratings. Several years ago, the station had pioneered the so-called "happy talk" style of local news featuring the likes of the ever-smiling and recently fired Good Morning, America weatherman John Coleman. But the item so angered the news director that the column subsequently reported that he had told his staff only to read all newspapers, including USA Today, which had recently appeared in Chicago. Apparently, some associations are too unflattering for even the happiest of news directors.

Actually, the Tribune's gossip columnists need not have looked farther than the page on which their column appears to see if USA Today had affected Chicago journalism. And whether or not it has might concern Boston readers because the Gannett chain began circulation of the paper in the New England area last week.

Just after USA Today's arrival in Chicago, the Tribune underwent a few cosmetic changes. On the back page of its first section, inches away from the gossip column, one finds the Tribune's new color-coded weather map, not unlike USA Today's weather page. The latter includes not only three-day forecasts for each state but also the local phone numbers for the national weather service in sixteen American cities. Moreover, the Tribune's front page now includes a boxed "here's-what's-inside"-like column, with a friendly "Good Morning" at its top. Each of USA Today's four sections--News, Money, Sports, and Life--includes a similar feature, simply called "Newsline," "Moneyline," and so on.

The Tribune also now relies more heavily than before on color photography, a common feature of USA Today. It doesn't seem to matter much that the color often looks unnatural and uneven, like the work of some second-grader who just can't seem to get all the crayon marks inside the lines. Even the Tribune's "Good Morning" rests inside a blue box, like those so frequently favored by USA Today. The blue tint does make the "Good Morning" look soft and warm, but it still seems rather unlikely that a reader will be moved to say, "And a good morning to you, Chicago Tribune."

The question, then, doesn't seem to be if, but rather how USA Today affects new coverage in this country. And at least one answer lies in local TV news. The similarities between the two are extensive, for both seem as concerned with appearances as with anything else--local news perhaps with hair styles, USA Today with their color.

Granted both cover serious and breaking stories. But such items often receive relatively little space or time. Instead, in USA Today, for instance, one finds daily columns like "Offbeat USA," which promises to give the "human side of the news." On August 30, "Offbeat" offered these "human" stories: "Iowa man munches 22 hot dogs in 2 hours" and "100 frogs are in woman's menagerie." And on September 6: "Residents are asked to adopt a pothole." Stories like these make USA Today the Muzak of print journalism. They won't challenge you, or make you think, but they'll pass the time in an elevator.

Local TV news often proves as unintrusive as Muzak as well. After the broadcast's first block of eight minutes or so, viewers get three minutes of weather (no phone numbers, though), four to five minutes of sports, and three or so soft-news packages, as opposed to voice overs (an anchor narrating a videotape). Last summer, even in Chicago, which is recognized as one of the country's strongest local markets, viewers could have watched reports on "Flashdance chic" in the city; a camera and a reporter followed a few unsuspecting women who wore oversized sweatshirts.

In cities with less hard news than Chicago, these sorts of stories appear more regularly. Since USA Today is sold in 2500 cities--according to spokesman Marvin Clark--it can be looked at not as the "nation's newspaper," as it calls itself, but rather as the nation's local newscast.

USA TODAY mirrors local TV news in other ways as well. Before each commercial break, an anchor gives a brief run-down of "what's coming up," teasers that, though uninformative, keep viewers watching. When Dan Rather replaced Walter Cronkite, the CBS Evening News joined ABC and NBC is the some practice, one which many newspapers follow as well, but one which USA Today takes to ridiculous extremes.

The front page of its first section offers in one corner a preview of the sports section, in another of the "Life" section. Each of the front pages in turn offer tidbits about what lies in inside. The bottom of page one describes what will be in tomorrow's USA Today, and so on, In fact, the paper devotes so much room to previews that a reader might well ask where the news comes in.

The answer surfaces by following a typical items which ran earlier this month as part of page one's "Newsline," yet another "inside this issue" feature: "Abroad: Schultz to meet with Soviet's Gromyko next week; 7A," Turning to page 7A, one finds the full story:

Secretary of State Shultz will meet with Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko in Madrid next week, the State Department said Monday. A department spokesman would not way what the two will talk about but obviously there is a lot to discuss with the Soviets. The meeting will take place between September 7 and 9.

Why USA Today offers an encapsulation of an encapsulation is unclear.

A large share of the paper's space is allotted to its graphics and photographs, a fact which in itself is not bad. But then USA Today's photographs for the most part don't duplicate the best photojournalism of, say, the old Life magazine, but rather the worst of the new Life: big, splashy, static color images that don't say much. The September 6 issue's front page features double column pictures of three people who knew a passenger on the downed Korean jet. "How the hell can you condone attacking a civilian jet?" asks Dennis Levesque. USA Today seems to believe that if we didn't see Levesque's unexpressive face, as we might on TV, the impact would be lost. In USA Today, more often than not a picture is worth only a few dozen words, roughly the number you'll find in more than a few of its stories.

Many of the stories are credited simply: "Special to USA Today." According to spokesman Clark, "That means the story could have been rewritten from the AP or UPI wires-- with additional research--or it could mean that it was contributed from one of Gannett's 85 other papers. But they're re-researched, not just rewritten."

"Re-researched" sounds neither too special nor too flattering to other Gannett reporters. Other aspects of the paper make their jobs seem even less special. The "Life" section reads like a collection of press releases-- "Hershey's has a new chocolate milk" (accompanied by color graphic); "Sophisticated Ladies opens tonight in Atlanta." Such stories are routinely introduced with expressions like. "Chocolate lovers are talking about..." or "Musical theater fans are wondering when..."

The section's "People" page promises a look "behind the scenes with the famous and fascinating," as it did on August 31 with a story on "Christie's Clothes Line." USA Today regularly focuses on such overexposed celebrities like Christie Brinkley and it makes interesting distinctions. The first section's second page offers "Newsmakers," a column which will take you "Behind the scenes with people in the headlines." A few weeks ago, the column ran a short "behind the scenes" item under the succinct headline "Death"; "Actress Jan Clayton, who played the original Mother in the Lassie TV series, has died of cancer. She was 66."

But more than 1.1 million Americans go behind scenes like that each day. USA Today is a success. But so are Harlequin romances and fad diet books and they don't claim to be the country's first and only national paper.

American tourist Samantha Smith still qualifies this month for "Newsmakers." She'll go back to school in Manchester, Me., the column reveals. "Officials say they'll ask her to talk about her trip later this year."

Eleven-year-old Smith appeared on the CBS local news in Chicago this past summer and, afterwards, she complained that anchors on local stations across the country always asked her the same questions. Somehow it seems appropriate that, weeks after her trip abroad, weeks after her overexposure on local broadcasts, USA Today is still talking about Samantha Smith.