In yet another sign of the decline of network television news, General Electric Co.'s (NYSE: GE) NBC dumped "Dateline" anchor Stone Phillips. He won't be the last high-priced talent to be shown the door.

As ratings continue to decline for news programs at NBC, Walt Disney Co.'s (NYSE: DIS) ABC and CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) profit pressures are intensifying as shareholders demand to see a return for the money being poured into these shows.

That's why Phillips won't be earning nearly as much at his next job as the $7 million USA Today says he earned at NBC. Odds are best that he'll wind up at News Corp's (NYSE: NWS) Fox News Channel, Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) or another cable network such as the Discovery Channel which is now home to former "Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel.

In the wake of Philips' departure, TV personalities up and down the dial are probably quaking in their designer clothes wondering whether they will be next. It's a well-founded fear.

Networks are less patient than ever.

If entertainment programs don't immediately catch on, they are gone after a handful of episodes. Ratings are just as important to news programs. Though nightly news programs have been in decline for years, they still make good money for the networks.

Ratings points translate into advertising sales which translates eventually into profits. No TV star is immune from fiscal realities.

That's why Philips got pushed out the door. "Dateline" has morphed into a program dedicated to catching pathetic sex offenders. His services as a newsman were no longer needed.

Every once in a while Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) comes along with a new feature that grabs the attention of bloggers. Today's is Google Trends -- which ranks search terms based on their growth in popularity during the day.

In case you missed it, according to lostremote, General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE)'s NBC Universal launched an initiative last October: NBCU 2.0 -- a cost-cutting program designed to eliminate 700 jobs and $750 million in expenses by the end of 2008.

Two of the top Google Trends -- Stone Phillips (#1) and John Seigenthaler (#14) -- account for two of the highest profile 700 job cuts. Phillips is a co-host of Dateline and although I never watch the show, I remember his neck as being particularly frightening. Phillips will not be replaced. Meanwhile, Seigenthaler, who left last month, used to host the NBC Nightly News on weekends -- Lester Holt replaced him.

I hope these cost cuts improve NBCU's profitability, but there's a danger that they'll lead to revenue declines that exceed the cost cuts. Meanwhile Google's advertising revenues -- up 63% -- are growing while NBCU's shrank 22% (due, among other things, to the absence of 2007 programming to take up the slack from the 2006 Olympics and its weak ratings).

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns General Electric stock and has no financial interest in Google.