Because of the big news week in Egypt we've neglected a few CNN domestic items.
At the top of the list is John King and Dana Bash's announcement that they are expecting a baby this summer. The Kings have been married since May of 2008 and this is their first child. John has 2 children from his a previous marriage. ATC sends congratulations to the lucky couple.
The Hollywood Reporter published a Q & A with Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide on Thursday. Here's a portion, read more after the jump.
THR: You mentioned new programs. How do you feel about the performance of Piers Morgan so far?
Walton: It's spectacular. I'm really pleased. He is so clever, he is really smart, he is a big personality. And he works hard and does his homework. He's been stepping into the Egypt story now. We couldn't be happier.
THR: What about ratings? Have you noticed what kind of guests and topics do better for him or whether the show does better when he steps into breaking news versus has celebrity guests?
Walton: It's really too early to put a stamp on it. Piers and his producers and Ken Jautz who runs CNN U.S. will work together and look at what happens each day, review and always try to make it better each day. I can assure you that Piers will be every bit a part of the conversation, and the interview will be the basis of what that program is. But I think it is in its early days. He has tried all sorts of different types of shows in the two and a half weeks he has been on the air. Maybe that's what it will always be like.
THR: Parker Spitzer has been on the air longer, and you have tweaked that a bit. How happy are you with it now?
Walton: Much has been said and much has been written about the program. If you look at it just on its merits, it's one of the smartest programs on television - whether cable or broadcast. It fits very much within the brand of CNN and what it stands for. And if you look at the last 10 days or so, its performance has gotten a lot better and the past couple of nights it has beaten MSNBC. It's got some momentum right now.
THR: How do you explain that?
Walton: We had a couple of folks who weren't television professionals, and now they have got some time under their belts. They are performing, and the show just gets better and better.
THR: Anything you can say about the chatter that it will be just Spitzer one day?
Walton: I have got a little saying here at CNN internally that you can't burp without somebody somewhere writing. CNN commands a lot of attention, which is great. What you can count on is that we have Dr. Drew coming on HLN in primetime soon. That's the talent focus for our company right now
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – As president of CNN Worldwide, Jim Walton oversees the news operation's television, online and mobile businesses around the world.
A day after CNN's parent company Time Warner reported its latest earnings, Walton spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the cable network's 2010 financials, the early performance of Piers Morgan Tonight and the importance of U.S. primetime show.
The Hollywood Reporter: CNN had a record operating profit in 2009, and I hear you brought in another record profit for 2010. Is that true, and how big was it?
Jim Walton: We had a really good year in 2010. We had a fantastic year, and yes, we grew up profits over 2009. It was another earnings record, so we are really pleased...I am speaking about the worldwide business of CNN.
THR: How big a profit?
Walton: As you know, Time Warner doesn't break out our earnings, so I am not allowed to either. I can't.
THR: That is several record years in a row, isn't it?
Walton: That is seven years in a row of profit growth. That's pretty good. While the journalism industry is under siege, we continue to grow.
THR: What were the main drivers of your growth?
Walton: There are a lot of men and women here who work really hard. We have a pretty diverse business that is spread out around the world. And we got multiple revenue streams - television, the Web and mobile. It's not one television network. It's a big old honking news machine.
THR: The continued profit growth seems to be in some contrast with your continued U.S. primetime ratings challenges that are often in focus. Is that just not as important a factor?
Walton: I don't want to minimize it. The primetime programming on CNN U.S. is very, very important, and those ratings are important to us. But the ad revenue generated by our primetime programming on CNN U.S. is only about 10% of our total revenues. We have other parts of our business that are as big or bigger than that.
THR: What were some of the growth drivers for CNN last year?
Walton: Over the years, as various economies go up and down around the world, we are in so many different economies that we have a lot of touch points and are not weighed down by any one thing. We also have television, Web and mobile. Advertising is a huge component of our business domestically and internationally, but the distribution business is big for us. The Web business is big for us, mobile is growing, and we are in the syndication business as well.
THR: What do you predict for your business for this year?
Walton: I'm not allowed to give forward-leaning statements on financials. What I can tell you is that I am confident that we are going to have another great year. We have some new programs on CNN. We will be launching a new primetime program on HLN. We have some digital additions that we are going to make over the next four, five months. And the international business continues to evolve. So, I am very confident that we are going to have another strong year.
THR: You mentioned new programs. How do you feel about the performance of Piers Morgan so far?
Walton: It's spectacular. I'm really pleased. He is so clever, he is really smart, he is a big personality. And he works hard and does his homework. He's been stepping into the Egypt story now. We couldn't be happier.
THR: What about ratings? Have you noticed what kind of guests and topics do better for him or whether the show does better when he steps into breaking news versus has celebrity guests?
Walton: It's really too early to put a stamp on it. Piers and his producers and Ken Jautz who runs CNN U.S. will work together and look at what happens each day, review and always try to make it better each day. I can assure you that Piers will be every bit a part of the conversation, and the interview will be the basis of what that program is. But I think it is in its early days. He has tried all sorts of different types of shows in the two and a half weeks he has been on the air. Maybe that's what it will always be like.
THR: Parker Spitzer has been on the air longer, and you have tweaked that a bit. How happy are you with it now?
Walton: Much has been said and much has been written about the program. If you look at it just on its merits, it's one of the smartest programs on television - whether cable or broadcast. It fits very much within the brand of CNN and what it stands for. And if you look at the last 10 days or so, its performance has gotten a lot better and the past couple of nights it has beaten MSNBC. It's got some momentum right now.
THR: How do you explain that?
Walton: We had a couple of folks who weren't television professionals, and now they have got some time under their belts. They are performing, and the show just gets better and better.
THR: Anything you can say about the chatter that it will be just Spitzer one day?
Walton: I have got a little saying here at CNN internally that you can't burp without somebody somewhere writing. CNN commands a lot of attention, which is great. What you can count on is that we have Dr. Drew coming on HLN in primetime soon. That's the talent focus for our company right now.
THR: You have added personalities to primetime since Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes joked last year that some time CNN may be a bit boring. Do you feel you have made real progress?
Walton: It's in the eye of the beholder. What is funny to somebody is not funny to somebody else. What is exciting to one person might be boring to somebody else. But everybody who performs at CNN in an anchor role needs to be very, very smart and be able to relate to and be relevant to their audiences. We are not trying to be funny necessarily.
(Editing by Jill Serjeant)
Friday, February 4, 2011
Some Catching Up
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10 comments:
I am really happy for John and Dana. I think it is great that they are having a child together.
We posted long time ago that CNN should turn
over the channel to reporters and reporting.
CNN needs to focus on journalism. Rather it
be in depth reports, docs, mimi docs and
smart intelligent conversation. People want
real news. CNN needs to become the world's
largest content for news. All they have to do is
permit their reporters to play a huge role in
content.Go for intelligent conversation original
and in depth reports. Just use the resources of
CNN International more as well as CNN.com
& Time and other TW properties. Go with
real time news and get away from the
chattering class. The mindless talk is what
makes CNN not worth watching. It is all
about video and storytelling and news that
is real and informative.
I am waiting to see if CNN will change once
Mark Whitaker is involved. Variety has an
article about him and Jim Walton admits that
content is a problem at CNN. Let's see the
direction CNN is going 3 months from now.
Will CNN really focus on the news and get
away from partisan angles ? I am not holding
my breath. Some interesting things are being
said by both Walton and Whitaker. It comes
down to influence and will he be able to get
CNN to do news. That is the niche for CNN
but recent hires create a problem for CNN.
Congratulations to both Dana and John on their anticipated birth of their first child.
John strikes me as a very caring person and a good father.
Both are in the same type of news cycle so it will be easier for them to parent and make concessions.
Piers Morgan may go live, but it is the news content that raises the ratings as we have just wittnessed.
If there is a lull in the news cycle, no studio audience is going to raise the ratings for any of CNN's shows.
CNN excelled when there was a broadcast that was literally exciting to watch. Most times there is just plain ordinary news and this is where Fox's audience stays loyal.
CNN needs to find a loyal fan base for all of its hard news shows and that includes 360.
Giving AC a live audience last year, with boring content and game playing, proved not to move the dial one inch.
That tells you already that Piers Morgan is
in trouble. The show is boring and the only
reason the ratings is up for Parker Spitzer
and Piers Morgan is Egypt.CNN needs to
stop doing so many crime stories. It makes
CNN look like local news.CNN needs to hire
reporters and drop the pundits. Until CNN
has more reporters than pundits on the
network on a daily basis and actually have
people on who know what they are talking
about other than the typical political back
and forth they are doomed. Do they get
that hard news is the way or them to go.
Translation : we really messed thing up at CBN.
Question : how long will it take for CNN to drop
the problems and get back in the news biz ?
Parker Spitzer and Piers Morgan will be back
to their usual ratings soon and it is bad ratings
again for CNN. News brought in higher ratings
for CNN. When you diss your viewers like that
it is hard to get them back without fundamental
changes. Did they really think they would get
positive press with Eliot Spitzer, Kathleen Parker
and Piers Morgan ?
CNN is at a crossroads. They have to decide
if they will continue dumbing down the news
or really making sure the American public
gets legit news and not the pundit panels
that are clearly not qualified to be on as
analysts of complex topics. They are political
spin doctors and they should only be used on
political shows.CNN was too busy talking about
Palin tweets and other useless information that
they were late to get what was really happening
in Egypt.CNN was forced to have people like
Fareed Zakaria and others come on and
explain the situation.If CNN can't see that
news matters and that is what people want
after Egypt, they never will and I think
before too long it will be back to left vs
right news and nothing of substance. I
think Americans should be given a choice
when it comes to the news. If CNN,MSNBC
& FNC can't give us real news we should
be able to use our money for the BBC and
others. These so-called news channels are
nothing but political channels and we are
being robbed and having our money stolen
by corporate media who wants to use their
channels to spread ignorance and keep
people misinformed.
Piers Morgan has to start to build a personal rapport with people like Queen Noor of Jordan.
She and Larry had a special something everytime she came on.
Something was lacking in his interview with her even though she made an interesting guest.
CNN made the right decision not having Anderson on Morgan's program.
It would have been a conflict of interest IMHO. The little chat they had before the show was just enough. Piers has to get his own "fan base."
CNN needs to go with smart nonpartisan news.
It is growing as people tire of the same old stuff
that is too predictable. News and constant fresh
content will help CNN grow. It can't grow with
partisan bickering of points of view. We all know
what the people on the left and right will say.
Television is a visual medium . Video matters
more that opinion.CNN should unleash journalism.
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