CNN hopes to capitalize on its primary numbers
Via LAT
CNN hopes to capitalize on its primary numbers
By Matea Gold
NEW YORK — Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama aren’t the only ones courting swing voters as the 2008 campaign shifts into its next phase. The ferocious battle for cable news viewers is moving into its own general election mode — and CNN is striving mightily to keep its primary winning streak going.
The cable news network was the biggest beneficiary of the drawn-out Democratic primary, averaging 1.11 million prime-time viewers this year, a 50% boost over the same period last year. It’s the best performance by the channel since the invasion of Iraq in early 2003.
In all, CNN gained an average of 368,000 prime-time viewers through June 1, compared with Fox News’ 190,000 and MSNBC’s 224,000, according to Nielsen Media Research.
But even as its ratings swell, the network faces a rising challenge from MSNBC, which is riding high on the sharp-edged opinions of hosts such as Keith Olbermann, an outspoken Bush critic. And it still has not caught up with dominant Fox News and its popular right-leaning commentators.
To maintain its momentum, CNN is trying to seize the middle ground and distinguish itself from its rivals’ opinion-laden programming, even with the outspoken Lou Dobbs on its schedule.
“Get the facts from the only news channel to give you all sides,” declares a promotional spot on the network. “No spin. No affiliation. No agenda.”
“The mood of the country today I think is aggressively independent,” said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S., over lunch in his Time Warner Center office on a recent afternoon. “And what they’re looking for are answers, not pat talking points generated by the party headquarters.”
“The conventional wisdom up until now has been the more opinionated the better. Our competitors are doing that. . . . We’ve really tried hard to differentiate ourselves as the real news network.”
But it’s an open question as to how CNN will fare when the 2008 race ends and the network confronts its perennial challenge: keeping viewers when the news recedes.
“Cable viewers seem to want big, broad, ideological personalities,” said Aaron Brown, the new anchor of PBS’ “Wide Angle,” who left CNN in 2005 after he was replaced by Anderson Cooper. “It’s an opinion-driven medium. In November, the game resets, and I’m not sure it resets in a way that’s advantageous to CNN.”
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Comment by Terance — June 9, 2008 @ 5:38 pm
So CNN wants to sieze the middle ground. Then why did the loser, Campbell Brown, say last night “We’re going looking for Karl Rove’s fingerprints.”
She better be looking for an audience, instead!
Comment by Cella — June 10, 2008 @ 9:42 am
Yes she should, Cella. She and Carol Costello are two obvious partisans at CNN, and I can usually switch channels as soon as either of them appear.
Comment by Missy — June 10, 2008 @ 10:24 am