Tuesday, March 22, 2005
CNN Seeks New Ways to Battle Fox News
Source: New York Times Another article about Jon Klein's strategy to improve the ratings. Below are some quotes and excerpts from the article:
"In an ideal world, there probably would not be this much turnover," said Jim Walton, president of CNN News Group, to whom Mr. Klein, as president of its domestic networks, reports. "What I can assure you is Jon will be successful in this position, and he'll be in this position for many years to come."
"It's inevitable if you're critical of a particular show or a particular producer or the overall approach to a story, you're going to offend some people," Mr. Klein said. "These are the troops we've got. I need them to be motivated."
In an effort to narrow the gap with Fox at night, Mr. Klein has ruled out one obvious option: he will not, he says, turn CNN's prime-time lineup into a liberal counterpunch to Fox's opinion-driven programming, which draws a heavily conservative audience. "It's much better to be right down the middle," Mr. Klein said in an interview. "Moderates are our sweet spot."
Mr. Klein also said he did not intend, at least in the near future, to seek to replace Mr. Brown (whose program is broadcast at 10 p.m.), Ms. Zahn (8 p.m.) or Mr. Cooper (7 p.m.) - Mr. King, the network's mainstay at 9 p.m., was just signed to a contract extension through 2009 - though he did not rule out scratching at least one of those hosts from prime time, perhaps before year's end.
Mr. Klein believes Mr. Brown is making progress. Watching a replay of the opening of Mr. Brown's program from one night last month, Mr. Klein applauded Mr. Brown for dropping his opening essay and a round-up of correspondents known as "the whip" in favor of getting straight to that night's reports.
In an interview, Mr. Brown, 56, a sardonic man regarded as one of the better writers in television news, said that working to execute Mr. Klein's vision had been both exhilarating and painfully awkward.
Asked if he believed that nothing less than his job was hanging in the balance, Mr. Brown responded that he was a realist. "I understand my business pretty well," he said. "Everyone's impatient."
He added, "None us believes - and I hope Jon doesn't - that we can do this in a month."
Update: An insider says, "The article contains MANY factual errors: he's got AB's age wrong; and the opening he cited as being from last month, AB stopped doing both The Whip and Page Two, his commentary, back in December 2004 and his AB quote at end WERE NOT THE EXACT WORDS AB USED.
ALSO: Insiders say, "The piece goes light on Klein's hyberbolic personality...somethink he's bordering on fanatic behavior out to prove he's never wrong.."
# posted by ATN @ 9:39 PM 
