Posts tagged ‘CNN’

A Sign That Online Video News Is Dying — And That’s Not Necessarily a Bad Thing

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In May and June, the Oriella PR Network surveyed 770 journalists in 15 nations. They were asked some touchy-feely questions, like whether they’re happy and satisfied (shockingly, yes, for the most part), and a bunch of questions that get to what the work of journalism is becoming in this chaotic time.

The trend that leaped out at me is the decline in journalists’ interest in multimedia content. While blogs and Twitter were on the rise, the percent of journos whose organizations produce online video clips dropped rather sharply, from 47% in 2009 to just under 40% in 2010. And that decline didn’t translate into getting more video-based publicity materials. Only 27% wanted links to video content from PRs, compared to 35% the year before. The proportion interested in audio content also shrank.

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Hey CNN, Look to Twitter to Fill Your 8 O’Clock Hole

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Campbell Brown’s “honest broker” attempt at “no bias, no bull” has fallen to the ideologically booby-trapped no-spin produced by Bill O’Reilly at Fox and Keith Olbermann at MSNBC. CNN will undoubtedly try to fill her spot with another old media type who has a little more star power. Or CNN president Jon Klein will have to go back on his word and find a television “opinionator” that can compete at 8:00 o’clock.

Early indications are that Klein will look for somebody that can impose his or her personality on the program. The rumor that former solicitor general for prostitutes Eliot Spitzer would be up for the job has been debunked. But Brown’s candid resignation letter illustrates CNN’s problem:

The 8pm hour in cable news world is currently driven by the indomitable Bill O’Reilly, Nancy Grace and Keith Olbermann. Shedding my own journalistic skin to try to inhabit the kind of persona that might co-exist in that line up is simply impossible for me. It is not who I am or who I want to be; nor is it who CNN asked me to be at any point.

But maybe there is a third option for CNN. A traditional news anchor is too boring for 8:00 pm. Opinionated infotainment is a space already dominated by two of the biggest names in the business. Instead of taking one of two bad choices, CNN should go outside the mainstream and make a new media news hour, anchored by a person who isn’t just fluent in new media, but speaks it as his or her native tongue…

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