At the same event I mentioned below, I had a chat with Jonathan Klein, president of CNN/U.S. As far as leading CNN through this intense period of change goes, it seems as if the company has the right person at the helm. After all, he is the founder and former CEO of TheFeedRoom, the broadband TV ASP. He has the broadband mojo, and is trying, at least in his short six months there, to help the company moves back to its original mission: news. He realizes that the struggle to reinvent CNN is as much inside as it is on the outside.
If everyone’s running towards personality-based news shows, that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the right rat race. It seems as if he understands it.
He also seemed very open to ideas about incorporating bloggers into the CNN news flow, whether it be on TV or online. The “Inside The Blogs” segment on CNN daily, however lame it is, is a start, and I think he realizes it.
I am glad the company had decided to simulcast CNN International in the daytime here…CNN International is a decidedly superior product than the local CNN here, in terms of the quality of news. Having live in India and London, I missed it here. I am glad they are trying to take some steps to move away from the crossfire-runaway-bride-michael-jackson crapola. The message, from what I gather, is as much to his own journalists, as it is to the world in general: it is OK if we don’t cover what every other news station is running after. Let the journalists be exposed to the kind of reporting possible, the kind of issues that should be news, rather than the kind of issues that do make the news cut here.
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