Phyllis Schwartz

WHEN SHE TOOK OVER as president and general manager of NBC 7/39 in December 1999, it was a homecoming for Phyllis Schwartz. A journalism graduate of San Diego State University in 1977, she took her first assignment at KFMB-TV as a news producer. In 1980, she moved to NBC's Chicago TV affiliate as a vacation-relief writer, and four years later moved up to producer of the prime-time 10 p.m. newscast. Prior to returning to San Diego, she served as vice president of news and creative services for NBC Chicago. As active in the community as she is at the local studio, Schwartz lives in Encinitas with her husband, Paul, and two daughters, Yoshi and Lily.

TOM BLAIR: A journalism graduate as the top executive of a TV station. I suspect that's a bit of an anomaly in the TV game.

PHYLLIS SCHWARTZ: Well, it used to be unusual for people to come up through the journalism ranks and run stations, but it's become much more common than it was 20 years ago. In the past eight to 10 years, with some of the largest station groups, it's not as unusual for the news director to become president and GM. Part of the reason is that newsrooms are often the larger and more varied departments of many stations. Big parts of what stations do - their branding and economics - are wrapped around news.

TB: I'm also guessing a female chief executive isn't exactly the rule in television. Do you find yourself in a minority at industry conferences?

PS: I did until a few years ago. Now, though, NBC owns 10 English-language stations, and we have four female general managers. When I first came here, San Diego was unusual; there were women running two of the stations - Fox and the WB. But even separate from television, there tend to be a lot of women-run businesses in San Diego - a lot of women in very high positions, considering the size of the city. But then, 60 percent of TV viewers are women. And there's been increased sensitivity to the fact that you want to be sure the people who have a voice in newsrooms and station operations know the audience - who are the audience when they're not sitting here working.

TB: Let's talk about the news media in general. Compared to other cities, do you think San Diego is well-served by its print and broadcast media?

PS: It has improved immensely since I graduated from San Diego State. Out of school, I was a news producer at KFMB, and then I left for many years and went to one of the best towns for local news, Chicago. When I left, a lot of what San Diego news was about was the surf reports and, unfortunately, brush fires. We had [some big stories like] the PSA plane crash and the Old Globe fire. But in general, it was not considered a great news town. Now, it's really stepped up - in terms of serving folks here who want to be served. If you look at other cities the size of San Diego - we're the 27th TV market - I think we are served better than many. Of course, we could always do better. But I do think people are trying harder across the board in local news.

TB: In the early years of TV, local stations also provided their audience with local entertainmentótalk shows, variety, music. Now, that's pretty much left to the networks and syndication. Do you think local TV could be doing more local programming, or has that era passed?

PS: I really do think it could do more. And we have made an effort. Kimberly King's Sidewalk San Diego, for example; that is not a news show. We're going to launch something this month we've been working on for years. We're going to give Ken Kramer his own show. His About San Diego segments are one of the things our news viewers ask about most. We're going to put the show in an excellent time period - 6 o'clock on Sundays. He has hundreds of archive pieces, and he'll do new pieces every week. I love news, but what I love most about my job is the smorgasbord part of it. We do a lot of sports; we do a big holiday special; we're the only one in town that does a big New Year's special.

TB: With expanded cable and satellite TV, there are more options for viewers and lots more competition among stations. Has local viewership declined because of that?

PS: There's no question there's some decrease. But there's still a very healthy local viewership. Sometimes we trade it back and forth; one day another station might have a good day, the next we have a good day. An interesting trend, nationally and locally, is fewer people staying up late watching news. More people are getting up early and watching the morning news. Some of that has to do with the tremendous growth of traffic. If youíre going to work at 6 in the morning, it's buzzing on the freeways. Because of that, more people are getting up earlier, getting dressed and watching the weather and traffic on TV.

TB: The Internet also brings competition for viewers. But you have your own Web site - a rather elaborate one.

PS: The Internet has become an integral part of what we do every day. All of our on-air people - reporters, writers, producers - contribute to that. Gene Cubbison is going to start a new program on the site with some of the bits and pieces he couldnít get on the air - ones that wouldn't fit but are worth finding an audience. More and more, our people who create news content are getting into that. In addition to the Internet and on-air, we're doing things like Weather Plus, on digital cable. And weíll launch another digital channel early this year where we'll put up all of our newscasts, all the Ken Kramer segments, all the Laz [Jim Laslavic] Sports Wrap shows and special coverage.

TB: Time for a loaded question: Do you think it's healthy for a society to be getting a preponderance of its information from a 30- or 60-minute TV newscast?

PS: Let me turn that around. I think most people are watching local news. But they're also watching cable news, they're getting on the Internet; they're doing some radio; they're reading the newspaper; they're listening to and watching KPBS. The people who are really interested in knowing what's going on in their community, in their world - they're getting their information from lots of places. On the other hand, you could pick an hour newscast a day - ours, for example, where we're doing local, regional, statewide, national and international news - and you could be very well informed.

TB: Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but with the exception of the anchors, it seems TV news reporters are getting younger and younger. Youth generally equals inexperience - and lack of perspective. But your news operation seems to have more people with staying power.

PS: Yes. And that's by design. We try to make this a place where people such as Gene Cubbison, Rory Devine, Marty Levin, Margaret Radford and others would want to stay. These can be burnout jobs. There's a lot of night and weekend work - staking out the Santana school shootings, or covering a weeklong brush fire. Over 10 or 15 years, it can take a lot out of people. But our people feel we still have good journalism values; we're still interested in digging up good stories and informing the marketplace. I think it has a lot to do with creating an environment where people who know a lot, and are senior, and have a wealth of knowledge, feel they're respected and necessary.

TB: Let's talk about "sweeps" - the periods when TV ratings are established. That's when we seem to get all those soft, soft stories like "Where To Find the Best Deal on a Skimpy Black Dress" or "Posh Office Perks" or "Pet Etiquette." Is it necessary to do that sort of thing for ratings?

PS: Unlike some markets, where they now have year-round "People Meters," we rely on ratings. And we sell [advertising] off of three months a year - November, February and May. So thereís no question you're going to see - on most days during sweeps - an elevated number of specialty pieces. But we've also done some excellent pieces on issues like air-traffic control and fatigue. We had an investigative piece involving car mechanics. We do do sweeps pieces, but they're not all soft. We've worked with police staff on what are some of the neighborhoods that have more home invasions. We did the piece on the migrant-worker camps up in Carmel Valley with our sister station, KNBC in Los Angeles. Sometimes Consumer Bob is going to do a hard consumer piece during sweeps, and sometimes it's about getting a little black dress cheap at the Goodwill.

TB: Hispanics are a growing segment of our population. And that means new competition for viewers among the local TV operations. A year and a half ago, you launched Mi San Diego 43, a Spanish-language newscast. Has it been an instant hit, or is this more of an investment in the future?

PS: I don't think anything is an instant hit anymore, but it's definitely grown. No question it's an investment in the future. We're somewhat hamstrung because you cannot see the station in every household in San Diego. We're on digital cable, not analog, which means you have to be a digital subscriber. Tanya Luviano is not only the anchor but the reporter. We do an original story every day, and the stories are so well-received our sister station in L.A. takes Tanya live every day to do the same story. We've kind of become the border reporter for not only our Spanish-language Los Angeles stations but now all of the Telemundo stations we own around the country.

TB: You've been president and general manager for seven years. What's your next move? Network?

PS: I could if I wanted to, and Iíve had many opportunities. But I love San Diego. I love the fact that the TV stations here have a somewhat greater impact, maybe, than in bigger markets. Some markets, like Los Angeles or Chicago, have 12 TV stations in English and Spanish. I think we're able to have a lot more connection with the community here. San Diego has this fantastic combination of being right on the border -  so there's this international feel - and we're on the new frontier in terms of biotech and medical. This town is an interesting microcosm. I don't know if I would be as engaged and exhilarated in another market or another platform of the network right now.

TB: A colleague insisted I ask this. Your morning and evening newscasts - live, of course - are done with windows facing the downtown streets and street people. Apparently, that's been successful. Any downside? Have you had any flashers?

PS: No flashers. But when we first launched the "window on the world" concept, we did have a streaker. Fortunately, the people in the newsroom saw the guy coming around the corner, and the director was able to put his safety shield up just as the streaker came by. The street public got to see him, but not our viewing public.

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