Tuesday, May 31, 2005
At 25, CNN Avoids Party Animus
Source: Newsday Lots of good quotes from CNN head Jim Walton in this article by Verne Gay:
- "Some of [CNN's] problems the company brought on itself with various management changes, and some of it was brought on by very loud competitors who were trying - and some would say they were successful in some areas - to define CNN."
- "What you will see over the next two to four years is that technology will change the media more than in the past 15 [and] so what we need to do as a news organization is to try and get our arms around what we feel the consumers expect and want out of us."
- Walton also makes perfectly clear that he supports Klein, although he is perfectly unclear about what changes may be in the works. Larry King, 71, "will be doing [his show] for as long as he wants to," while prime-time hosts Paula Zahn and Aaron Brown, are "consummate professionals. ... Aaron is a wonderful writer [and] there are a lot of people who are very, very loyal to [him]. Am I one of them? Loyalty's a funny thing ... he needs to perform as do all of our people, and as long as he performs, I'll continue to be loyal."
- Walton on Ted Turner: "Ted was the face of CNN and he's missed by a lot of people, including me."
- But lately CNN has been on pause, or a sense that prime time, daytime and early morning are about to be overhauled yet again. "Whenever there's change people, get a little nervous, and no doubt people want to see what's going to happen," says veteran anchor Wolf Blitzer. "[But] I'm pretty optimistic that on the 25th anniversary, we're moving in the right direction."
# posted by ATN @ 12:28 AM 
