More on THE SITE

In an article from SALON Magazine - January 24, 1997 - the author admits to being more fascinated with Soledad than with the show.

The secret of Soledad's success is that she's offered the true geeks generous terms of surrender. While pretending to no great technical knowledge herself, she treats techheads with a certain respect (though not reverence); she cajoles them into opening up, and reins them in when they begin to babble. The Site allows geeks (and the somewhat geeky) to present their best face to the world.

Mr. Media interviews Soledad O'Brien, host of MSNBC's The Site

EXCERPT:

O'Brien, the cyber-dream date of a generation of guys living in the basement of the science building, may give the impression she's been surfing the Web for years, but the truth is that before she got the job, it was all Greek Geek to her.

"I sort of raised that point quite gingerly when I had my interview with NBC," she admits. "I was sort of like, 'I don't know if you read my resume, but I really am not all that familiar with technology.' "

She hadn't been online at all, let alone being able to know the difference between Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

"On a scale of one to 10, technology-wise," she says, "I was probably a two, maybe a three on a good day."

Naturally, the show's producers said, great, that's what we are looking for. (And they wonder why people are skeptical about TV.) As it turned out, O'Brien's easy manner, natural flair for reporting and quick comprehension of ideas really was perfect for "The Site."

"The first time I saw "The Site," I fell madly in love with her," says musician Andy Cahan, the keyboardist of the '60s rock group the Turtles. "She's so gorgeous and she's just adorable, but very firm and business like too." Cahan, who has a lucrative online business doctoring demo tapes for fellow musicians, is featured on tonight's installment of "The Site."

In terms of plugging into the Zeitgeist if not actual viewers, he likens the experience of being interviewed by O'Brien to going on the old "Ed Sullivan Show".

"Everybody watched "The Ed Sullivan Show." It was part of the national conversation. "The Site" is the '90s equivalent."

Farewell to THE SITE
September

The show was seen as news but not hard news at MSNBC and it became an odd fit with the now 24-hour cable channel.

With MSNBC's expanding all-news format and Ziff-Davis' recently launched 24-hour channel on computing and the Internet, The Site was between two worlds.

As the San Francisco ofices were being expanded, a joint announcement from ZD and MSNBC said the partnership between NBC and Microsoft will look for "other programming arrangements" with ZD and ZDTV in tech news coverage.

The show had been airing on MSNBC 7-8 pm EDT as a daily news program. Since its debut in July '96, it had won two Emmy awards and was named best overall TV program by the Computer Press Assn.

Some reports have it that the extensive news coverage of Princess Diana's death (August 31), including full-press reports on MSNBC, not only pushed up the channel's ratings, but pre-empted The Site and eventually off the schedule.

ZDTV announced at the time a full launch in early 1998.

When the show was canceled Soledad says she was:

"Surprised! I was disappointed. I pretty much stayed in bed for a week, because I didn't have to go into work.

Weirdly enough, I was on vacation. And, then the second week I started, you know, sort of making myself go to the gym, and snap out of it.

And, by the end of the second week I was back in New York starting to work for NBC again. Since I was employed by NBC it wasn't as if I was going to be out in the street destitute, or something. It was just that my assignment was going to change, and I had two weeks off before I knew what my new assignment was going to be.

I knew it was going to be with NBC in some capacity, it was just, what is it going to be?

And, for the people who worked for Ziff-Davis Television they had this 24-hour channel coming on-line. Which was incredible because there was this opportunity for jobs. I mean, for people who are not in television, when you're canceled, you lose your job. You can't pay your mortgage, you can't pay your car payment, things like that. So to have Ziff-Davis have this 24-hour channel where everybody, with few exceptions, was offered a job on the channel. It was unbelievable. They went to work the next day."

Soledad was still under contract to NBC and became a substitute anchor on that network's "The News With Brian Williams" and worked on its weekend "Today Show."

This email from Soledad was posted on the Fan Club web site:

"I just wanted to say hello and thank each and every one of you for tuning in to “The Site” this past year. Much of what made my experience so great was the interaction I had with you. All-in-all, I had a wonderful time working on the show, becoming an expert on technology, and most importantly, creating our Internet community through our great e-mails, chats, newsroom conversations, and even conventional ol’ snail-mail.

As you know, our show was canceled in September and while I miss all of my colleagues in San Francisco and regularly covering the technology beat, NBC has me off and running on a variety of new and exciting projects.

I was recently named an NBC News correspondent and MSNBC anchor. Which is to say, that I will be a general news reporter for “Nightly News,” “Dateline,” and substitute anchor for both weekend “Nightly News” and weekend “Today.” Also, you can catch me every Saturday and Sunday on MSNBC’s weekend show, “Morning Blend,” from 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ET. “Morning Blend” is a talk/interview show that takes a look at the week that was and the week that will be through topical news, including entertainment, fashion, world news and a little coffee talk to spice things up.

I hope you will tune in to MSNBC’s “Morning Blend” on the weekends and of course to continue sending me your comments and suggestions."

Soledad was the recipient of the 1997 Hispanic Achievement Award in Communications.