HISTORY

Started on June1,1980 by Ted Turner in Atlanta, GA
Televisions 1^st 24 hour news program
CNN had a start-up rate of $34.5 million and set up bureaus across the U.S. and then around the world beginning with Rome and London
Businessmen, reporters, and other news stations were skeptical of the new company and it was referred to as the “Chicken Noodle Network”
Main competition at this time was Satellite News Channel which was owned by Westinghouse and ABC
After adding “Headline News” to CNN in 1982, SNC gave up and sold their shares to Turner for $25 million
CNN took off from here reaching more than 30 million homes

ROAD TO SUCCESS

By 1989, CNN had 1600 employees, annual budget was $150 million, and was available in 65 countries
CNN aided in the careers of Daniel Schorr, Mary Alice Williams, Kathleen Sullivan, Katie Couric, Larry King, Greta Van Susteren, and Connie Chung
Turner said there were no “stars” on CNN-News was the “star”
Larry King Live was always the most watched hour on CNN
There was a fashion show every week, a daily hour devoted to politics, an numerous programs with different themes and characteristics
CNN was on the air continuously with over 17 correspondents on site waiting with news
CNN made deals with foreign TV news stations to secure the rights to breaking news stories and photos

CNN’s cover of the Gulf War was what made it famous in the US and around the world
Only TV network working live from the very beginning of Operation Desert Storm
CNN reported everything the military allowed them to-history’s 1^st live-on-television war
CNN’s audience in the US reached an all-time high of 1.6 million viewers every quarter hour
CNN’s finest moment

In 1996, both FOX and MSNBC joined the all-news cable field
They aimed at a more youthful audience, hiring younger anchors and taking on more enjoyable stories
They based their programming around personalities, wanting to build “stars” as reporters, rather than news
Also, Time Warner had bought out Turner Broadcasting, which then was bought by AOL to form AOL Time Warner
This change caused 400 CNN employees jobs to be lost
Now the 3 networks were trading employees, stealing stories, and battling for the support of each one’s audience

Ted Turner changed the history of TV news with CNN
CNN is still the #1 place for news when high-interest news breaks-viewer rate shot up after September 11^th
Set the standards for the way live news broadcasts should be!

REFERENCES

Reuven, Frank. (2002). When news was the star. News Leader, 85, 2, 35-37.
Hickey, Neil. (2001). Enter CNN. Columbia Journalism Review, 40, 4, 88-89.
Gomery, Douglas. (1992). Cable news network. Encyclopedia of Television. 2, 271-272.