With Google Alerts, Huffington Post and News Aggregators, Who Needs CNN? Answer: Advertisers

Oct 4, 2010  •  Post A Comment

With personalized Google alerts, online news aggregators and opinionated news sources, Brian Steinberg asks in Advertising Age just who today still needs CNN. His answer: Advertisers.

The reason advertisers still love the cable-news network is because local news programs are losing viewers and TV hosts such as Glenn Beck can be too controversial, he writes.

"CNN is safe ground. It’s a trusted, if plain-vanilla, news source," according to the piece. "Many cable-news outlets run ads in an arrangement known as "run of schedule" in which a marketer agrees to have ads run during a specific range of hours but often doesn’t know which program or what host the commercials will be supporting." Fox News has moved some advertisers concerned about Beck’s program to other spots on the network, so it hasn’t lost ad sales.

This may explain why CNN isn’t selling its new prime-time lineup as a big change from its usual approach, despite a new show that debuts today with disgraced former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Steinberg points out. Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide, says that linking programs to a particular point-of-view would be damaging for CNN’s operations, the story points out.


  1. If advertisers want people to see their ads they need to be more focused on the Internet. The statistics are clear that people under 35-years-old are spending more time on the net and getting most of their news from the net. Not CNN, FOX or MSNBC.

  2. Even with time spent online increasing, the time spent viewing television has never been higher. Many people, especially younger viewers, are using their laptop or mobile device while watching tv… meaning tv advertising is a great way to drive traffic to their website.

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