Eyewitness World: The New Global News Stream
By John Townley
January 21, 2000

Eyewitness World
A long time ago (over 30 years) in a place far, far away (America in the '60s) the format of television news was changed forever by a simple but revolutionary media/business model. The idea came to someone at ABC-TV in 1968 that it cost a lot of money to send dozens of network reporters to out-of-the-way places in the U.S. to cover stories on the spot when, in fact, there were local reporters already on the spot who could cover it for a song. The man who thought it up was ABC-TV VP Al Primo and he called it Eyewitness News, which he later spun off into his own independent company of that name.

About a decade later, the same idea hit another budding baby tycoon, except he expanded it to a global scale. His name was Ted Turner, and he called it CNN and pushed the envelope even further, with the help of the new cable network medium. When a world crisis turned up in an obscure part of the globe, Turner found a TV station near the action, got them to find someone on their staff that spoke some English, and put that reporter on as CNN's correspondent-on-the-spot. A network was born, and with it a new breed of news stars like Peter Arnett and Christiane Amanpour.

Now a new network medium is in full swing, the Internet, and at least two of those original movers and shakers are back at empire-building again, bigger than ever. In back of the camera is Al Primo, in front of it Peter Arnett. The new empire-to-be was founded as ForeignTV.com (now Medium4.com). In this case, Peter Arnett has it the easier of the two. He's on a leisurely tour interviewing the likes of Queen Noor and other world figures, usually well away from the just-off-camera machine-gun fire he's known for. Al Primo, on the other hand, is madly circling the world striking deals with radio and TV stations that will make up what is shaping up to be a major player in world media once broadband gets here for real.

Primo is not a stranger to high-pressure and sometimes controversial operations. He was appointed Director of News and Public Affairs for WABC-TV in 1968 where he launched his Eyewitness News concept. He was the youngest Vice President named at ABC in 1972, in charge of local news operations. Primo set up the corporate procedures to work with General Managers and News Directors, which led the station group to record setting ratings and profits.

He joined ABC News as Executive Producer of the Reasoner Report in 1974. The ABC TV stations and network have become a world leader in news using many of his innovations. He currently appears on the major networks, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel as a regular expert on media affairs. Primo founded Eyewitness Newservice, Inc. after departing ABC as VP News in 1977. It provides production and consulting, talent coaching, news and general management service for networks; local stations web sites and cable systems. He has worked on projects for the New York Times, US Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Hearst, and USA TODAY. Time New Media, and TCI.