How to Save CNN

Recently, Jim Walton, the President of CNN, resigned siting that the vaunted cable network “needs new thinking”.  A quick look at the numbers would seem to bear this statement out—CNN is showing it’s lowest ratings since the 1990’s, and during the second quarter of this year, some of their shows lost as much as 41% of their viewership.  In terms of comparison, CNN is consistently placing third (sometimes a distant third) behind competitors Fox News and MSNBC.    (Source:   http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/cnns-jim-walton-resigns_b79823 )

So if CNN is doing this poorly (at least comparatively) and is in need of some "new thinking"--then specifically what kind of new thinking or new strategies are needed in order to turn the network around?

In my estimation, CNN's main problem is that they are neither "Fish nor Fowl".  They certainly aren’t a “Conservative” network, but by the same token, MSNBC is the more blatantly Liberal network (CNN’s Liberalism seems to be more subtle).  They try to play the “middle of the road” angle (not that they actually are middle of the road—just look at their pro-control programming right after the Colorado of “convincing “ people that they are middle of the road).

 While many people claim to like the idea that journalism should be “middle of the road” or “unbiased” (as laughable as the idea of any sort of journalism actually being unbiased might be), the numbers (and distant 3^rd place finishes) would indicate otherwise.  We are in a politically contentious environment, and the American people are chomping at the bit to “choose sides”.  CNN is largely failing at convincing people to identify with them as a result.  In practice, it would appear that a comparatively low number of Americans (or, at the very least, a low number of the potential Cable news audience) actually want the middle-of-the-road, supposedly “unbiased”, approach to journalism that many people claim they want.

So, if CNN is to “pick a side” with their future hanging in the balance, does it make more sense for them to go more Liberal, or to go more Conservative.  Well, let’s look at where the opportunity is—On the left you have not only MSNBC, but all three major networks, most of the entertainment and music industry, and most of the newspaper industry.  Pretty hard to carve out a niche for yourself with that much competition!  But on the Right, you have only Fox News, Talk Radio, and a good section of the internet (think Drudge Report and Breitbart).  So, comparing the two, it would appear on the surface that there’s more room for competition and acquiring market share on the Right side of America’s political spectrum.

You read that right—in order to survive, CNN must swing hard to the Right.

But can you “outfox” Fox?   Is it possible to move even further to the Right than Fox and pick up market share?   Potentially, yes—look at the primetime lineup, the only rip-roarin’ Conservative among ‘em is Sean Hannity.  Bill O’Reilly (for all the people who bash him as a right-wing ideologue)  is downright Centrist some nights.  Greta Van Sustren doesn’t wear her politics on her sleeve, and the strength of her show is more on the interviews anyway.  Throw in Glenn Beck being gone, and you start to see that there is room to swing even to the right of Fox!

For all the talk from the Left of Fox News’ “Right Wing Extremism”, there is still a segment of the population that desires programming, news, and analysis that goes even further to the Right than Fox News does.  And it’s in this area where there is a bit of a void in the Cable news marketplace.  Perhaps this is an area that CNN could potentially challenge in.

It boils down to simple mathematics and simple business—unless either the Left-wing demand for programming or the Right-wing demand programming is significantly larger than the other (and presently, there is no indication that either are),  then trying to take a piece of the pie that already has a multitude of fingers in it is a sure path to starvation.  The Liberal “pie” already has many networks, newspapers, and other businesses trying to carve out their piece of that pie.  But the Conservative pie has far fewer fingers in it, despite the fact that it might indeed be growing.  If CNN would challenge for a piece of that pie, they could end up with a much larger and filling meal than they ever could otherwise!