CBS News announces expansion of Web news component

NEW YORK (AP) _ CBS News is aggressively expanding its Internet capabilities to offer a 24-hour news network with a ``video jukebox'' that allows consumers to construct their own online newscasts,

Tuesday, July 12th 2005, 10:14 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ CBS News is aggressively expanding its Internet capabilities to offer a 24-hour news network with a ``video jukebox'' that allows consumers to construct their own online newscasts, the network announced Tuesday.

The revamped CBSNews.com site also includes a Web log, ``Public Eye,'' where CBS News executives and journalists respond to questions and complaints from the public.

The advertiser-supported Web site gives consumers free access to more than 25,000 video clips. CBS journalists will be encouraged to frequently contribute video reports to the site instead of simply waiting for the next television broadcast.

``It's increasingly clear that the future of CBS News is not just as a practitioner of broadcast journalism but of broadband journalism,'' CBS News President Andrew Heyward said.

CBS has lagged behind ABC, the other major broadcast network that does not have an affiliated cable news network, in moving onto the Web. CBS claimed it will offer a more viewer-controlled experience than ABC, which has more elements of a traditional television newscast put on the Web.

Its newly designed home page has a feature called ``The EyeBox,'' which allows viewers to build their own newscast from exclusive Web video, material already broadcast on the network and archival material.

CBS hopes the redesign can also help attract more young people to its news product. Television news viewers tend to skew old, and CBS generally has the oldest audience. CBS News is also still seeking a new format and replacement for Dan Rather on its struggling flagship broadcast, the ``CBS Evening News.''