Atlanta Business News -- 12:31 p.m. Saturday May 29, 2010
30 years of CNN: ‘We’ll continue to be what we are’
By Tammy Joyner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s your 30th birthday. Your name is world famous and you always know the latest on world events. What do you do for an encore?
That’s the question posed to CNN Worldwide chief Jim Walton on the eve of the media giant’s anniversary Tuesday, which will mark three decades of global news gathering.
Walton has been there almost from the beginning. He joined CNN a year after its inception and has risen through the ranks. Known around the CNN complex as a leader with a matter-of-fact style, he was tapped in 2003 to head the global operation. Under his leadership, CNN Worldwide has evolved from solely a broadcast network to a media conglomerate that delivers news via television, radio, computer, cellphone and portable devices.
TV viewers see some of Walton’s handiwork on a daily basis. “Anderson Cooper 360” and “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer are two programs launched under Walton’s leadership. And viewers no longer just watch the news. They can report it themselves, too, through iReport, another program started on Walton’s watch.
The company estimates it reaches more than 2 billion people in more than 200 countries.
Walton was in New York late last week for the Time Warner Investor Day, where top executives of CNN’s parent company give industry analysts a detailed breakdown of the company’s performance. In a break between events, Walton spoke about his operation and where it might be in another 10 years. An edited version of the conversation follows:
Q. Now that CNN is turning 30, what can we expect the company to look like on its 40th anniversary?
A. I would expect more of the same. CNN is a brand recognized around the world. When it was formed, it married two important components: journalism and technology. I expect expansion of that over the next 10 years.
Q. How do you see your role in guiding CNN to those goals?
A. I work with the senior team. We lay out the strategy and how we measure the success. We empower managers and other employees with tools to do great work. I’m part of a great experienced team.
Q. Can you elaborate on some of those strategies?
A. We have some catch phrases we like to use to keep us on track. In the simplest terms, CNN will serve more news to more people in more places across more platforms than any other news organization in the world. Everything breaks down from that and how we accomplish that.
Q. There’s talk that CNN wants to join forces with a broadcast TV partner, most likely CBS. What’s the thinking behind such a union, given the industry’s focus toward newer forms of media such as the Internet?
A. There’s been talk about CNN and broadcast networks — and it has been more than one — on and off for 10 or 12 years or more. CNN is in a healthy position. We continue to grow. We’re coming off a record [earnings] year. CNN has a lot to offer any broadcasting partner in news gathering. So we’re not under any pressure to do a deal. I wouldn’t say anything is imminent on that.
Q. Your competitors have gained more viewers with amped-up, personality-driven shows, yet CNN has pretty much stayed the course delivering news in a no-nonsense format. What makes you stay true to that format?
A. First, let’s clarify the first part about our competitors gaining more viewers. They haven’t. What you call CNN — the United States portion, the Anderson Cooper, the channel on cable — still has more individual viewers. Ratings are made up of an amount of individual people and time they spending viewing. CNN in the United States has more viewers every month [than Fox News or MSNBC].
Q. In the last year, CNN has lost almost half of its prime-time viewers and just recently, evening host Campbell Brown said she’s leaving because not enough people are watching her show. She wanted to, in her words, get out of the way so that CNN could make changes. What kind of changes are you envisioning for CNN ?
A. What I can tell you at this point is we’ll continue to be what we are, a journalistic operation that’s non-partisan. We will be making an announcement on the 8 o’clock slot at some point, but we’re not ready to discuss it now.
Q. Where is CNN making its money now?
A. We have a global business with multiple revenue streams. We have four flagship businesses — CNN US, HLN [formerly Headline News], CNN International and CNN Digital — and all four of them are growing. [CNN prime time advertising sales represent less than 10 percent of CNN Worldwide’s total revenue.]
But by the looks of this picture, it seems that he will be 4 or 3 years-old, we are not sure.
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