Listen to this article

Before moving to public television’s WNET in 2007, Neal Shapiro spent more than two decades fighting the network ratings wars during his career as a news executive at ABC and NBC.

Before moving to public television’s WNET in 2007, Neal Shapiro spent more than two decades fighting the network ratings wars during his career as a news executive at ABC and NBC.

“I lived it for 25 years,” said Shapiro, who doesn’t miss the high-stakes commercial TV world, where a few points in the ratings spell success or failure. “I knew what the ratings were twice a day, every morning and every night and every week, and I lived and died by them.”

Which is why the CEO of WNET, parent of Channel 13, relishes bringing to New Jersey that special luxury of public television to ignore the ratings, and instead spend time building an audience for journalism that shines a light on the overlooked virtues of New Jersey — and on its hidden corners of corruption and conflict.

“We’re in this for the long haul,” Shapiro said during an interview at his midtown Manhattan office, rocking back in his chair and wearing his trademark suspenders. “It’s all about touching peoples’ minds and their hearts. It’s about doing great work.”

This summer, WNET won the bid to take over the state-owned New Jersey Network, and on July 1, its new NJTV division went on the air with “NJ Today Summer Edition,” a Monday-to-Friday half-hour show of news headlines and extended interviews with public officials.

But the hand-off nearly didn’t happen — the WNET deal came within a vote of being scuttled in the state Senate, as some lawmakers railed against transferring the state’s 40-year-old public television station to the New York nonprofit broadcaster.

After WNET prevailed, Shapiro said, “I heard from many people, people who had voted against us, who said, ‘I did what I thought I had to do, but I’m totally confident you’ll do a great job, so let me know how I can help you.’ My goal is to make sure they look back and say, ‘It’s one of the best decisions we ever made.'”

That hasn’t been the case with all its opponents, though, like Assemblyman Patrick J. Diegnan Jr. (D-South Plainfield), who called “Summer Edition” “an embarrassment.”
“NJN had reporters on site, following up on stories — this is a clipping service,” he said.
And U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) said in a statement Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to “sell NJN across the river … was a mistake, and the loss of quality in New Jersey news programming is already clear.”

“I am encouraged that (NJN reporter) Michael Aron has been brought on to help restore quality coverage, but there is a lot of work to do,” Lautenberg added.

But Shapiro said “Summer Edition” was never meant to offer the kind of robust programming he plans to launch this fall. “You can’t flick a switch and instantly expect a brand-new company to emerge,” he said. “We need to establish a company that is going to serve New Jersey well for years to come — and one that can live within its budget.”

Shapiro said he turned NBC’s “Dateline” into one of TV’s most successful prime-time newsmagazines “by putting the news back in newsmagazine,” and said he has plans to improve the news content on NJTV by partnering with newspapers on major investigative stories.

“It would be great to have the reporters and editors on the show the day before or the day after (the story appears in print), and then do the follow-ups,” he said. “Investigative journalism is hard … it’s like mining. Sometimes you get the mother lode, and sometimes you don’t, but we can also do more to amplify that great reporting that is being done in New Jersey right now.”

He also plans to continue hiring for the station’s studios, which will all be in New Jersey. On Tuesday, NJTV announced it hired Aron, the veteran Trenton newscaster and political analyst, and Shapiro said there will be more journalists brought on board as NJTV gears up for the fall launch of a full-fledged “NJ Today.” That program will cover New Jersey events and issues with its own staff of reporters, as well as through partnerships with colleges and newspapers across the state.

Regarding the number of reporters who might be hired, Shapiro said, “there’s not an executive alive who wouldn’t like to have more reporters working for him. But we’re not going to lose money. So we’re going to do the broadcast we can afford to do.”

NJTV’s parent, Public Media NJ, is assembling a high-profile board of directors that includes Shapiro; former Gov. Tom Kean; Dennis Bone, president of Verizon New Jersey; and Thomas A. Bracken, president of the state Chamber of Commerce. Public Media NJ is sharing several board members with the Foundation for New Jersey Public Broadcasting, which raised more than $100 million over 20 years for NJN.

Shapiro said NJTV must raise a budget of at least $9 million a year, and the foundation “is going to be very helpful, and hopefully raise a couple of million dollars” this year. Meanwhile, WNET brings “more expertise about how to raise money. We have a great operation — we are over our (fundraising) goals in New York.”

WNET gets donations from its 216,704 members, including 61,902 who live in New Jersey. But Shapiro said that doesn’t necessarily mean NJTV will compete with WNET for money. He said overlapping audiences are common in public broadcasting, “and some people will choose to support both stations,” while also giving to one or more public radio stations.

NJTV support will come from foundations, individuals and pledge drives that sign up viewers as members of the new station. The first pledge drive won’t be for a while, though, as “we are concentrating on getting our news operations up and running in September,” Shapiro said.

E-mail to: [email protected]