J201Cable and network TV newsA brief history of network TV news•1950s: Network news as a “loss leader”•1960s: National news broadcasts lengthened to 30 minutes•1970s: Public officials increasingly seek network correspondents first•1980s: Network news as a “profit center”•producer-driven, anchor-reported, correspondent-scarce•but then ... new cable channels and audience segmentationCNN•1980: Started by Ted Turner as 24-hour live news•1985: CNN International (now 31 int’l bureaus)•1991: CNN rises to fame during Gulf War•1995: CNN Interactive (CNN.com)•1996: CNN sold to Time Warner •2000: AOL purchases Time Warner (and CNN)•Walter Isaacson, former editor of Time: “Ratings don't necessarily translate into money or success or respectability or good journalism. I could get extremely good ratings by putting on every car chase, plus wrestling and SpongeBob.”Fox News Channel•1996: Debut by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.•2002: Drew larger audience than CNN •“Fair and balanced”; “We report, you decide”•bringing talk radio to cable TV (conservative audience)•chairman Roger Ailes: former Nixon, Reagan, Bush adviser•John Moody, news editor: “if we are accused of being conservative it's because we haven't fallen for the same truisms that have masqueraded as journalism for the last twenty-five years."MSNBC•Debut in 1996•“synergy” between Microsoft and GE: Microsoft put up $500 million to buy into cable news, and continues to pay GE a $30 million license fee each year•Jerry Nachman, vice-president and editor-in-chief, was former editor of the New York Post•GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt appeared on Fox to announce his dismay over MSNBC's performance: "I think the standard right now is Fox. I want [MSNBC] to be as interesting and edgy as you guys are."”what does 24-hour news mean?•“edgy”?•“raw”?•superficial?•subject to spikes in viewership•no longer innovative?prime time on 24-hour news channels•“hard news” during the day, pundits in the evening•Fox: O’Reilly at 8pm each night is the show to beat: 2.4 million viewers•few long-form documentaries: “talk is cheap”•give viewers what they want: beat the story to death “Nielsen figures showed that viewers immediately switched to a rival network whenever one of them bailed out of [the top] story to give other news.”so who’s winning the cable news war?•“buzz”?•number of homes reached or viewers tuned in?•amount of money spent on gathering news?•size of audience during prime time?•respect and trust?•amount of revenue and profit?•quality of reporting?compare to 82% on nightly network
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