CNN Tells Advertisers “For The CNN Brands, Prime Time Is All The Time”

by Steve Krakauer | 4:54 pm, April 13th, 2010

» 8 comments

CNN held a “newsmakers” event this morning in New York, which basically consisted of an upfront-like presentation rallying advertisers and panels featuring the talent on CNN and HLN.

One point the network continued to consistently hammer home – ignore the prime time ratings dip, it doesn’t matter, we’re the only ones doing journalism.

It started with this new slogan, from Executive Vice President of CNN Ad Sales Greg D’Alba: “For the CNN brands, prime time is all the time.”

It’s an interesting route – obviously, prime time is struggling, so change the subject to show that prime time is no longer what’s important. This is a tactic CNN has employed in the past. It’s about the journalism – and according to D’Alba, “there’s less journalism” out there in the cable news arena.

President of CNN Worldwide Jim Walton echoed the sentiments of D’Alba, jokingly thanking “the media for all the great coverage we’ve had,” and later pointing to CNN as the “only credible non-partisan voice left, and that matters.”

And then it was more of the same from CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein – who held up one finger in the air to punctuate the point that CNN was in “a category of one.” (It was also a designation he gave to Anderson Cooper later in the presentation.)

Although CNN execs worked to differentiate, and spin, their network from the cable news competition (now beating the “Most Trusted Name In News” by wider margins), the politics panel had tangential mentions of FNC and MSNBC. Of Mike Huckabee, who won a just-released CNN poll for top GOP presidential 2012 candidate, Candy Crowley said Huckabee “has a TV show, and that tends to help.” Later, while discussing Eliot Spitzer‘s political prospects, Wolf Blitzer said, “He has a better chance of making in in cable.”

Never one to hold back, a Fox News spokesperson had this to say to Mediaite after the event: “If Mr. Bewkes is satisfied with Jim’s explanation for the dreadful performance of his cable news division, then who are we to judge?”

> Update: Matea Gold of the Los Angeles Times talked to Walton and Klein separately at the event. Walton told her, “I’m not satisfied with the ratings, but I’m not concerned.” As for the Klein conversation:

“We don’t have anything to announce,” Klein said when asked of possible changes. “You’re always looking, always, at what we can do better, how we can do it better. But there’s nothing imminent.”

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CNN, newsmakers

Munch

we’re the only ones doing journalism.”

What a whopper!
libra blue

“there’s less journalism” out there in the cable news arena.”

Is this why they are adding an Oprah-like talk show to their line-up?

“only credible non-partisan voice left, and that matters.”

I guess that is why they included CNN resident racist Roland Martin on their panel today and they continue to be the Obama news network.
felixw

Amazing that CNN can claim to be the “only credible non-partisan voice.” Yet the audience polling data proves that the viewers do not agree. I can’t see how CNN will ever fix its problems so long as denies the very bias that drives millions of viewers away from its programming.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

I’ve been in and out all day, so I haven’t read all the wrap-ups, but I was struck that in the staff memo TVNewser published this morning, Klein basically hit on something that I’ve said all along; CNN primetime may not be the ratings winner, but it’s only one part of a much larger network and to a large extent, it’s the “synergy” that counts.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

PS) In that brief listing of the various CNN outlets, I saw no mention of the supermarket or gas pump channels. Admittedly, I’ve only seen the gas pump once in the wild and I’ve never seen the supermarket version, so I wonder if those have fallen to the wayside and/or never got past the test phase.
libra blue

I guess the bulk of CNN’s viewers are a “captured” audience, waiting in airports, hotels, or in supermarket lines, not people with remotes who freely choose what they want to watch.
felixw

Yes, CNN has the highest share of TVs where viewers are not allowed to change the channel. But the Left is always dominant in places where they can control the communication and shut down debate and dissent — the professor at the podium, the newscaster of network TV, the TV screen at the airport.

But as soon as you go to two-way media which allow real dialogue — at the town hall meeting or on talk radio — the left withers up and disappears. When they can’t control the flow of information, they prove totally incapable of defending their oppressive social engineering schemes. And who can be surprised? How can you defend this ridiculous Obama deficit? How can you defend this failed stimulus program? How can you defend forcing through a health care bill that the vast majority of voters oppose? No wonder the Left prefers TV stations where you can’t change the channel!
kieronnpollard

"The media for all the great coverage we've had," and later points of CNN as the "only credible impartial voice back, and that matters.
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