Why CNN Is, Or At Least Has Been, Happy To Be Non-Partisan
A story in The New York Post yesterday puts context around remarks made last week by CNN president Jonathan Klein in the midst of the Lou Dobbs denouement -- specifically that the naming of John King to replace Dobbs was "a statement about the importance of real nonpartisan news to CNN."
At the time I thought Klein was being magnanimous in stating so emphatically that CNN would continue to boldly go where no other media property that calls itself a "cable news" network has gone before, sticking to the facts instead of wallowing deeply in bipartisanship like MSNBC and Fox News. Witness CNN, the network that eschews high ratings and high ad rates in the name of journalism!
It turns out, as the Post makes clear, that in a Glenn Beck-ified world, playing it mostly straight down in the middle gets you higher ad rates, at least if you're a 30-year-old, trusted network, with on-air talent that is less likely to blurt out comments that advertisers want to stay away from.
However, that's not the whole point of the Post story. Its focus is on the fact that CNN's continued slide in the ratings -- in the absence of a Michael Jackson death or other major news story -- may hurt the premium that it has been charging advertisers. In October, its primetime audience in adults 25-49 was one-third that of category leader Fox News.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't give any detail on ad rates, but another story in the Post today reveals that even if the network stands to lose million, it is still willing to pay to keep its integrity in tact. It reportedly paid Lou Dobbs $8 million in walking away money. And that's no chump change.
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