News you can lose

[longknife]

CNN’s transformation says a lot about what is working today in television

Feb 8th 2014 | NEW YORK | From the print edition

JEFF ZUCKER, boss of CNN Worldwide, a cable-news firm, likes to start his morning with a shot of numbers. Every weekday at 9am he confers with his teams in New York, Atlanta, Washington, DC, and other bureaus to discuss ratings and web traffic, and to decide what news to cover. On February 4th a story reconstructing the final day of Philip Seymour Hoffman, an actor who died of a heroin overdose (see obituary), boosted CNN’s website. Mr Zucker wanted to “push it” on TV too. As producers pitch the stories they plan to cover, Mr Zucker pitches them his own, including more on Hillary Clinton’s election prospects, how bad weather affects America’s economy and whether drinking two fizzy drinks a day will actually kill you.

And then, the article provides a chart as to how the news channels are losing viewers

What it DOESN'T say is that Fox is still out-pacing the other two. Much to the dismay of liberals, I might add. It also points out CNN is profitable – a lot of it coming from cable networks paying to carry it. For an overseas traveler, I'm certain seeing CNN in your hotel room is comforting. I was also surprised to learn CNN is promoting and producing its own 1 hour films. I've seen the ads but never bothered to watch one. I also didn't see anything on CNBC and noticed ABC and CBS don't even try anything like that.

Will cable news go the way tabloid magazines and print newspapers are seeming to go?