Rise of Fox puts CNN in strange No. 2 role

Last spring, CNN Chairman Tom Johnson had uncomfortable conversations with advisers who blew in from Hollywood with Johnson's new boss, Jamie Kellner.

West Coast guys had ideas for how to jazz up the Atlanta-based network, which was looking more and more frumpy next to rival channels with flashy graphics, high energy and party personalities.

"I kept hearing words like 'hot' and 'sizzle,' " said Johnson, who retired in June. "It troubled me."

Publicly, Kellner said CNN only needed "a fresh coat of paint." Privately, "he told me he thought CNN needed a new DNA," Johnson said.

"Give us six months to a year and see what happens," Kellner said in an April 2001 interview. "We'll be well ahead of Fox."

A year later, Johnson praised Kellner and said the Hollywood influences have not diminished CNN's journalistic standards. But almost everything about the culture and on-air look is different at the network that for two decades defined 24-hour TV news.

CNN still breaks big news. Late last month, Christiane Amanpour aired a remarkable live interview with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the still-smoking ruins of his compound. Gunfire rattled in the background.

CNN's ratings are up and growing faster than those of MSNBC, CNBC and the big evening newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC. And CNN is becoming increasingly attractive to younger viewers, whom advertisers most covet.

But for the first time in its history, CNN is no longer the No. 1 cable news network. Fox News Channel has passed CNN in the ratings, and its lead is growing.

Part of the reason, people in the industry said, is that Fox News has been skillful at gauging what many viewers want and giving it to them.

Another factor: CNN executives said there's a lot they can't change without messing up a brand honed since CNN launched 22 years ago.

Second place isn't bad, according to CNN executives. But advertisers notice who's leading.

"[CNN's] relative competitive position is eroding," said John Rash, who directs broadcast negotiations for the advertising agency Campbell Mithun. "CNN used to enjoying a marketplace of relatively no competition. Now they are second in a three-way dogfight."

So, Kellner's prediction last April was wrong. The bigger issue is whether he's got CNN on track and moving forward.

When AOL Time Warner executives were looking to jazz things up, they had every reason to believe they had the right person for the job. After all, Kellner had helped launch the Fox entertainment network and later gave birth to the WB network.

He loved on-air showmanship and had a knack for attracting young viewers. He used edgy programming like "The Simpsons" and "Married ... With Children" to build networks that challenged ABC, CBS and NBC.

So AOL promoted Kellner last year and give him the keys to the company's Atlanta-based cable networks. As chairman of Turner Broadcasting System, he oversees TBS, TNT, CNN and Cartoon Network as well as the WB network in Los Angeles, and the Atlanta Braves, Hawks and Thrashers.

CNN's emphasis on reporting news 24 hours a day was looking less relevant in a world where news online is only a click away. Executives formulated plans to rebuild Headline News, which had its lowest ratings in a decade.

CNN's expenses, meanwhile, had soared due to new Web sites, international expansion and the launch of ill-fated prime-time shows in the United States. Two months before Kellner came on board, executives in Atlanta fired 400 CNN workers, 10 percent of the work force.

Some CNN staffers looked down at Fox News as a raucous, journalistically weak, conservative-leaning fringe network. But Fox News Channel never blinked. After just five years of existence, it was poised to catch and pass CNN in viewers.

Kellner thought he knew what CNN needed. He signed off on spending tens of millions of dollars to retool CNN and Headline News.

The network that had focused almost solely on news would undergo a culture shift.

CNN started caring more about its on-air look. It made its programs more lively and cut back on anchors reading script. For 20 years, CNN's star was the news. Under Kellner, personalities shared top billing.

CNN began spending heavily to promote pricey talent brought in over the last year: Paula Zahn, Lou Dobbs, Aaron Brown and Connie Chung, who begins an evening show in June.

Last week, the network expanded its debate show, "Crossfire," to an hour. The aging program is more a verbal food fight than news, and it was a precursor to the Fox News "Hannity & Colmes" show.

Executives also overhauled Headline News, giving it a fast, busy format intended to grab younger viewers. CNN faced a storm of criticism after it hired former "NYPD Blue" actress Andrea Thompson to be a prime-time anchor on Headline News. She seemed to struggle on air and quit last month. But the pace hasn't slowed. In June, CNN will open new street-level studios in New York.

Kellner last summer brought in a respected journalist to become CNN's chairman: Walter Isaacson., editorial director of Time Inc.

While the changes at CNN have been dramatic, both Kellner and Isaacson said there are some things they simply won't do: CNN will not have a lot of shouting or hype. It will not focus on opinion instead of news. And it won't broadcast the news with an ideological bent.

"The business we are in requires that we stay within certain rules," Kellner said. "That's sometimes less exciting than what others do."

Hogwash, said Brit Hume, who was at ABC before becoming Fox News Channel's Washington managing editor. CNN simply doesn't get it, Hume said. CNN is still dull, he said, and it unwittingly carries a liberal bias that turns off a lot of viewers.

Rather than addressing those issues, "they are trying to solve their problems by replacing people they think are less glamorous with people they think are more glamorous," Hume said.

Fox News people think they're winning because they have provocative personalities, sharp presentation and news that doesn't go over people's heads.

In fact, news networks don't necessarily win the ratings battle by doing the best news shows, said Robert Thompson, who directs the Center for the Study of Popular TV at Syracuse University.

"The criteria for good journalism and the criteria for audience approval in many ways are at complete odds with each other," Thompson said. Fox News has "a lot of programming that is really not great journalism. It's really better entertainment."

Hume says "the dirty little secret" of TV news is that you rarely increase ratings by breaking more news than the competition. Most of the time, people don't notice, he said. "You have to do it with such volume and such regularity that it is overwhelmingly obvious to viewers."

CNN claims to have won at least 23 major TV journalism awards in the past year. Fox News has one, for its coverage of the Florida vote recount.

"CNN can win all the awards they want," said Danielle Gorash, a Fox News spokeswoman. "Obviously, the American public is not impressed."

What Fox wants to win -- and what advertisers care about more than awards -- is ratings.

And Fox is doubly proud to be beating CNN even though it is available in 9 million fewer homes.

During the first three months of the year, Fox News attracted an average audience of 666,000 people, up 116 percent from the same period last year. CNN averaged 546,000 viewers, up 55 percent.

"That's how you keep score in this business," Hume said. "Customers are what count."

But no one believes executives of AOL Time Warner will let one of their most prestigious brands fall.

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes predicted the push for the top spot in cable news will be "a pitched battle for years to come." But just for old times sake, he added: "We're going to continue to kick their [rear] up around their ears every day. I'm looking forward to doing that for some time in the future."

"We can still grow our business substantially if we are No. 2," said Brad Turell, Turner Broadcasting's top spokesman and a longtime lieutenant of Kellner's from Los Angeles. One reason for that, he contended, is that CNN and Fox News aren't taking viewers from each other so much as from the big broadcasting networks.

CNN is a far different operation than Fox. It has a bigger audience outside the United States than inside it. It's a much bigger player online. It has a business-news network, CNNFN, which continues to struggle. Its sports-news network, CNN/Sports Illustrated, is being turned into a vehicle for airing pro basketball games and other events as part of a joint venture with the National Basketball Association.

But the bottom line, CNN executives said, is that their network remains highly profitable.

CNN's U.S. operations pull in $400 million a year in advertising -- four times what Fox News makes, Turell said. And CNN combined with Headline News gets three times as much per subscriber from cable systems than what Fox News gets, according to Kagan World Media.

But CNN's advertising edge is likely to diminish if it remains second in ratings, according to advertising industry executives.

Meanwhile, inside CNN's headquarters in Atlanta, employees overall have "smiles on their faces and a spring in their step," Kellner said. But many CNN employees said morale is not good.

A number of CNN's senior staffers, including top executives, longtime anchors and field producers, took hefty payouts and left the company last year. And although Kellner and Isaacson have said CNN will remain based in Atlanta, some staffers don't buy it. They worry that more and more of the most important operations will be shifted to New York, where AOL is erecting a new headquarters.

The rise of Fox News adds yet another challenge for CNN journalists. "It has put an enormous amount of pressure on us," said anchor Wolf Blitzer. But he added: "We're fighting back. We're not giving up, by any means."

CNN in strange No. 2 role

What a coincidence. I just had a strange Number Two this morning, right after eating a couple of bran muffins.

"What a coincidence. I just had a strange Number Two this morning, right after eating a couple of bran muffins."

LOL..oh mah gawd.. it's IowaHawk!

"Publicly, Kellner said CNN only needed "a fresh coat of paint." Privately, "he told me he thought CNN needed a new DNA," Johnson said. Either way, Kellner was confident."

To quote Groucho Marx: "Now there's a man with an open mind - you can feel the breeze from here!"

These dolts don't get it. CNN has more extensive coverage and far better graphical appeal than FOX, but their product is the same as all the rest. FOX has a product which is unique among networks: they present both sides of an issue.

CNN is still tops in breaking news -- when something BIG happens, it ain't Fox News I tune to, even when I get it at home.

Here at school, I miss the O'Reily Factor, but thats about it. Im not exactly a news junkie.

CNN just doesn't get it. But what can you do when 90% of the entire CNN worldwide staff are Liberals. But here's a hint for the U.S. audience: Dump Wolf Blitzer and Judy Woodruff. Then, maybe your network will "take shape", and more people will start watching.

Still, like Cspan in its infancy, Fox relies on its core and base of Conservatives- all others, CNN and MSNBC alienated us.The 2000 election was the last straw.

Ah, so he's the one thats responsible for shelving Speedy Gonzales.

Publicly, Kellner said CNN only needed "a fresh coat of paint." Privately, "he told me he thought CNN needed a new DNA," Johnson said.

Hey cnn - no new coat of paint, no new dna - just try telling the truth once in a while and eliminating the left wing bias - people are sick of it and turning the channel.

The Legend---IowaHawk!

When CNN's Andrea Thompson first sat at the Headline News desk after coming off NYPD Blue (and being photgraphed in the nude for some artsy-mag), she ingratiated herself to the audience with this:

Hello, I am Andrea Thompson, and you would know that unless you have been living in a cave for last few years."

Hey babe, way to go!

*** CNN will not have a lot of shouting or hype. It will not focus on opinion instead of news. And it won't broadcast the news with an ideological bent. ***

Well, things are looking up. At least CNN knows it's supposed to SAY that. Somebody let me know if it ever happens.

Judy Woodruff is awful. Never did understand her appeal. The other guy I can't stand is the horrible Bill Schneider. What a geek. Haven't seen much of Wolf but the little I did see was pretty annoying.

Brit Hume is the best guy out there, bar none!

CNN = Communists News Network, NBC = Nothing But Communists, CNBC = Communists, Nothing But Communists, MSNBC = Matthews Sucks Nothing But Communists, CBS = Communists Bull Sh*t, ABC = ALL Bullsh*T Communists, C-SPAN = Communists-SPAM, TBS = TASS Bull Sh*t, PBS = PRAVDA Bull Sh*t, BBC = Bill Bullsh*t Communist! Fairweather (whichever the way the wind blows including O'Reilly) FOX sometimes ROCKS. Bob Dornan, Paul Harvey and the Mighty Maja Rushie, Rush Limbaugh(O'Reilly you only wish you we're that good), Rule the Airwaves and Free Republic(even though they just changed to this complicated format) is the Best News Network!!!!:-)

Like other lost liberals, CNN simply believes that spreading liberal propoganda is the right strategy, but because the people are too stupid to understand what they are doing you need a "coat of fresh paint." Nonsense. The reason CNN's ratings tanked is that Fox offered a balanced, fair coverage. The problem of liberal bias was always there, only now good old fashioned competition has smoked it out and offered alternatives. The irony is that Fox hardly presents conservative views, they present all views and to the CNNs of the world that is unacceptable. CNN will continue to nosedive, fresh or stale paint, until it rethinks its policy of advancing liberalism.

I thought they were strange all along!

They have the absolute WORST "talking heads" on TV!

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