Saturday, May 28, 2005
CNN's 25-Year Fight for Eyeballs
Source: UK Observer Great article about CNN's 25th Anniversary. The article features CNN/I's Managing Editor Chris Cramer. Cramer joined CNN in 1996 after 26 years at the BBC, where he rose to head of news gathering. Cramer gives his thoughts on a variety of topics including Fox News, bias, and CNN's global presence. Below are a few quotes from the article:
- 'By any definition, CNN globally remains the number one pan-regional news network', he says, adding that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the audience is not limited to English-speakers on overseas business trips. The old days of watching CNN in hotel rooms when there was nothing else to watch are over. Over 85 per cent of people watch it at home'.
- Fox insiders refer to CNN America's new President Jonathan Klein as 'Jon De-cline'. But Cramer is sanguine about the Fox threat. 'They are enjoying ratings success and I respect them for that. [But] Fox is not on the international broadcasting radar. It's not in direct competition. CNN had first-mover advantage and now its got a large number of domestic competitors. But Fox is not designed to be an international competitor to CNN and it never will be.'
- 'In the last few months, CNN has attracted more unique viewers than anyone else.' On an average monthly basis in 2005, CNN US had 64.9 million unique viewers while Fox News Channel had 57.9 million and MSNBC had 44.4m. 'We're in a battle for eyeballs, domestically and internationally,' but points out that, unlike rival services, CNN's international arm has been profitable since the late 1980s.
- 'It makes me kind of smile [that] people are still debating the advent of 24-hour news 25 years after it was invented', Cramer retorts. 'People consume news channels in a very different way. They only want it for 10 or 15 minutes. They want their fix of what's going on, to check the world hasn't ended, and they [switch over] to something else. Fixed-time bulletins, particularly in the US, are losing viewers in their millions.'
- What about the accusation that CNN promotes western assumptions and values, consciously or not? 'That is a charge which is levelled at the CNN, the BBC and others. I respect people who level it, but I completely refute it. We believe in no agenda, no viewpoint. We have to try very hard to put ourselves in the position of the audience we are broadcasting to. We have [local] reporters. It's rare that we do the same piece of reporting for CNN in the US and for CNN International.
# posted by ATN @ 9:48 PM 
