Thursday, August 03, 2006
Former CNN'er Joins The Weather Channel
MediaLine reports, "Jeff Flock joins The Weather Channel as a severe weather correspondent based in Chicago. Jeff spent 24 years with CNN as a correspondent and Chicago Bureau Chief in addition to founding and managing the severe weather website HurricaneNow.com."# posted by ATN @ 11:48 PM 
CNN Taps Sam Feist as Network’s Political Director
Source: CNN Press Release Sam Feist, senior executive producer of political programming for CNN/U.S., also becomes the network’s political director, it was announced today by Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. As a senior executive producer since 2003, Feist has overseen the network’s political programming, including The Situation Room. With his additional duties, Feist will coordinate all facets of CNN’s daily political coverage.
“As we look to assert our primacy in political coverage throughout the upcoming midterm and presidential elections, we wanted to put in place the strongest political team off the air as we have on the air,” Klein said. “The vision, intelligence and ability that Sam showed in launching The Situation Room will now be applied more broadly to make political news even more interesting to our viewers.”
Since joining CNN in 1990, Feist has worked on numerous political programs. He formerly oversaw the production of Inside Politics and Crossfire. Prior to joining Crossfire, Feist was the founding executive producer of CNN’s daily newscast Wolf Blitzer Reports. He also served as the executive producer of CNN’s weekend programs Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, The Capital Gang and Evans & Novak.
Feist has produced live programs from nations around the world including: Russia, Israel, the United Kingdom and China. He has produced interviews with such world leaders as George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, Al Gore, Yitzhak Rabin and Margaret Thatcher.
Feist began his CNN career as a freelance producer at CNN’s London bureau in 1990 and joined CNN full-time at its Atlanta headquarters in 1991. During the 1992 presidential campaign, he moved to the Washington bureau where he has held a number of positions including associate producer, producer, senior producer and assignment editor.
Sam Feist received his bachelor of arts in political science from Vanderbilt University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He received his law degree with honors from the Georgetown University Law Center, which included a semester studying international law at Cambridge University. Feist is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the bar of the District of Columbia.
“As we look to assert our primacy in political coverage throughout the upcoming midterm and presidential elections, we wanted to put in place the strongest political team off the air as we have on the air,” Klein said. “The vision, intelligence and ability that Sam showed in launching The Situation Room will now be applied more broadly to make political news even more interesting to our viewers.”
Since joining CNN in 1990, Feist has worked on numerous political programs. He formerly oversaw the production of Inside Politics and Crossfire. Prior to joining Crossfire, Feist was the founding executive producer of CNN’s daily newscast Wolf Blitzer Reports. He also served as the executive producer of CNN’s weekend programs Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, The Capital Gang and Evans & Novak.
Feist has produced live programs from nations around the world including: Russia, Israel, the United Kingdom and China. He has produced interviews with such world leaders as George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, Al Gore, Yitzhak Rabin and Margaret Thatcher.
Feist began his CNN career as a freelance producer at CNN’s London bureau in 1990 and joined CNN full-time at its Atlanta headquarters in 1991. During the 1992 presidential campaign, he moved to the Washington bureau where he has held a number of positions including associate producer, producer, senior producer and assignment editor.
Sam Feist received his bachelor of arts in political science from Vanderbilt University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He received his law degree with honors from the Georgetown University Law Center, which included a semester studying international law at Cambridge University. Feist is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the bar of the District of Columbia.
# posted by ATN @ 10:32 PM
Castro’s Daughter Joins CNN as Miami-based Contributor
Source: CNN Press Release Alina Fernandez, exiled daughter of Cuban President Fidel Castro and someone critical of his policies, has joined CNN as a network contributor, it was announced today by Susan Bunda, senior vice president for news of CNN/U.S. Fernandez, who fled Cuba in 1993, will provide analysis and commentary from Miami.“Few people are as connected and as informed about issues concerning Cuba and Fidel Castro as Alina,” Bunda said. “With her frequent lectures and popular radio program, she truly has her finger on the pulse of Cuban-American politics, not only in Miami but across the country.”
“At this critical point in history, as a Cuban it’s important for me to draw the world’s attention to the situation inside Cuba,” Fernandez said. “CNN is a global network, which can reach the largest population available.”
CNN opened a bureau in Havana in 1997, becoming the first U.S.-based news organization with a full-time presence in Cuba since Castro kicked out the Associated Press in 1969. The network has leveraged its position as the only U.S. broadcast news organization with a full-time bureau in the country to provide comprehensive coverage of Castro’s recent surgery.
Born in 1956 before the revolution that put her father into power, Fernandez writes about growing up in Cuba in her book Castro’s Daughter: An Exile’s Memoir of Cuba, recalling how memories of Mickey Mouse were replaced with televised images of executions. As an adult, she fled to Spain with her daughter and then moved to Miami. Today, she hosts Simplemente Alina, a daily radio program on Cuban and Cuban-American issues.
# posted by ATN @ 10:29 PM
Kagan Leaving CNN, Launching Online Site
TV Newser reports Daryn Kagan is leaving CNN after 12 years with the network. TVN says Kagan is launching an online venture.
# posted by ATN @ 1:28 PM
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
July Ratings: CNN Up, FNC Down
I read several blogs, trade websites and the such and it is really amazing how the numbers are spun. One blog has a headline like "Numbers Good for FNC in July", THEN I read and look at the numbers and the numbers I see are down from last year for FNC. Anyway, here's a portion of an article in Variety about how the numbers played out for July:
"CNN saw sharp audience increases in July as war broke out in the south of Lebanon. Net was up 29% in total viewers and 46% in the 25-54 demographic during the month -- the biggest increase for any cable news network.
Fox News Channel was down 6% in total viewers and flat in the 25-54 demo. It suffered a more precipitous decline in primetime, losing 19% in total viewers and 16% in the demo.
Despite FNC's declines, it still beat CNN handily in primetime, averaging 1.5 million viewers to CNN's 864,000; CNN still has a long way to go before it can be considered a serious ratings challenger."
So how I see it is, CNN was up in July and FNC was down. Can losing viewers be a good thing? Hmmmm, I detect a leak on the Titanic and a blind PR team.
"CNN saw sharp audience increases in July as war broke out in the south of Lebanon. Net was up 29% in total viewers and 46% in the 25-54 demographic during the month -- the biggest increase for any cable news network.
Fox News Channel was down 6% in total viewers and flat in the 25-54 demo. It suffered a more precipitous decline in primetime, losing 19% in total viewers and 16% in the demo.
Despite FNC's declines, it still beat CNN handily in primetime, averaging 1.5 million viewers to CNN's 864,000; CNN still has a long way to go before it can be considered a serious ratings challenger."
So how I see it is, CNN was up in July and FNC was down. Can losing viewers be a good thing? Hmmmm, I detect a leak on the Titanic and a blind PR team.
# posted by ATN @ 5:04 PM
Study: Viewers Say TV News Lacks Credibility; CNN Still the Most Trusted Name in Cable News
SourceL Media Life According to the latest study from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, fewer than a quarter of the 3,204 adults surveyed believe all or most of what they see on NBC News (23 percent), ABC News (22 percent) or CBS News (22 percent), continuing a downward trend in credibility that stretches back to the mid-1980s. For the sake of comparison, the Pew study conducted in 1998 found NBC and ABC tied as the most trusted broadcast news organizations, with 30 percent of those surveyed saying that believed what was reported on both networks. CBS News had a 28 percent approval rate eight years ago.
Cable has fared no better. Back in 1998, CNN boasted a stellar 42 percent approval rate, only to drop to 28 percent this year. Rival Fox News Channel has remained steady since it was first added to the Pew study in 2000; that year, 26 percent of respondents said they trusted FNC, a figure that is more or less consistent with the 25 percent approval rate in 2006.
Predictably enough, partisan politics plays a significant role as far as perceived credibility is concerned. At 32 percent, FNC gets the nod for the highest credibility rating among Republicans and the lowest among Democrats (22 percent). Only the print publication Newsweek is met with more skepticism by Democrats (21 percent). Those numbers neatly reverse themselves when CNN comes into play, as 32 percent of Democrats surveyed said they believed all or most of what they saw on the news net, while only 22 percent of Republicans reported the same.
CNN is by no means the least trusted news net among GOP respondents, as every outlet from C-SPAN (21 percent) to MSNBC (18 percent) scored lower on the credibility scale. NBC News (19 percent), ABC News (18 percent) and CBS News (15 percent) also were met with a great deal of cynicism from Republicans, who expressed less confidence than Democrats in the credibility of nearly every major news outlet, with the exception of FNC and the Wall Street Journal.
Cable has fared no better. Back in 1998, CNN boasted a stellar 42 percent approval rate, only to drop to 28 percent this year. Rival Fox News Channel has remained steady since it was first added to the Pew study in 2000; that year, 26 percent of respondents said they trusted FNC, a figure that is more or less consistent with the 25 percent approval rate in 2006.
Predictably enough, partisan politics plays a significant role as far as perceived credibility is concerned. At 32 percent, FNC gets the nod for the highest credibility rating among Republicans and the lowest among Democrats (22 percent). Only the print publication Newsweek is met with more skepticism by Democrats (21 percent). Those numbers neatly reverse themselves when CNN comes into play, as 32 percent of Democrats surveyed said they believed all or most of what they saw on the news net, while only 22 percent of Republicans reported the same.
CNN is by no means the least trusted news net among GOP respondents, as every outlet from C-SPAN (21 percent) to MSNBC (18 percent) scored lower on the credibility scale. NBC News (19 percent), ABC News (18 percent) and CBS News (15 percent) also were met with a great deal of cynicism from Republicans, who expressed less confidence than Democrats in the credibility of nearly every major news outlet, with the exception of FNC and the Wall Street Journal.
# posted by ATN @ 2:44 PM
Become a CNN NewsHound
Source: CNN Press Release With the explosion of cell phone and digital cameras enabling people to capture powerful images of interesting news events, CNN today expanded its ability to showcase such material with the launch of “I-Report.” An I-Report allows a CNN viewer who captures compelling content with a personal cell phone, camera or other device to be a part of telling the world what is happening where they are through the unsurpassed reach of CNN.
“Thanks to advanced technology, CNN viewers today possess sophisticated digital cameras, cell phones and other equipment that can produce high-quality audio, pictures, graphics and video,” said Susan Bunda, senior vice president of news of CNN/U.S. “News can happen anywhere at any time. By showcasing content gathered by our viewers, we can prepare news reports that provide additional and deeper perspective to breaking news and other stories.”
Viewers can submit material through a “Send Your I-Report” link at CNN.com or by e-mail at ireport@cnn.com. Submitted I-Report material will go through the same extensive vetting process CNN employs for all content that goes on air or online.
CNN’s user-generated content project extends beyond television across multiple platforms. I-Report submissions will also be considered for inclusion on CNN Exchange, a comprehensive user-generated content destination on CNN.com that features user-submitted audio, video and graphics and also allows users to interact directly with the site’s news reports, commentaries and polls. More information about CNN Exchange can be found at www.cnn.com/exchange.
“Thanks to advanced technology, CNN viewers today possess sophisticated digital cameras, cell phones and other equipment that can produce high-quality audio, pictures, graphics and video,” said Susan Bunda, senior vice president of news of CNN/U.S. “News can happen anywhere at any time. By showcasing content gathered by our viewers, we can prepare news reports that provide additional and deeper perspective to breaking news and other stories.”
Viewers can submit material through a “Send Your I-Report” link at CNN.com or by e-mail at ireport@cnn.com. Submitted I-Report material will go through the same extensive vetting process CNN employs for all content that goes on air or online.
CNN’s user-generated content project extends beyond television across multiple platforms. I-Report submissions will also be considered for inclusion on CNN Exchange, a comprehensive user-generated content destination on CNN.com that features user-submitted audio, video and graphics and also allows users to interact directly with the site’s news reports, commentaries and polls. More information about CNN Exchange can be found at www.cnn.com/exchange.
# posted by ATN @ 2:36 PM
