“Our newsroom however uses Avid Newscutters and shoots on P2. The only time we would need to work with the newsroom is to grab footage for promo spots which we should be able to access there server from either system.”
This may be part of the reason they want to go with Avid. I would think it would be easier to get files transfered from Avid to Avid than from Avid to FCP. Having worked in a newsroom, if they need video for a promo, they need it right now and if the p2 cards have gone back to the field to cover another story (along with the camera they are in) it might just take too long to do any conversions.
There is something to be said for keeping all the systems the same in-house.