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[Zackback]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/the-cable-news-nightmare-cnn-and-piers-morgan-in-audience-crisis-7808466.html

The Cable News Nightmare: CNN (and Piers Morgan) in audience crisis

Viewers are turning off in droves, lured by brash rivals and popularity of internet news sources

Stories aren't the only thing that high-profile studio anchors at CNN apparently know how to break. Judging by the latest TV ratings, they also seem to be uncannily successful at destroying the loyalty of viewers.

Figures from ratings agency Nielsen show that America's most famous rolling news brand has just experienced its worst month for almost 20 years, parting company with more than 50 per cent of its audience in 12 months.

The development follows years of unrelenting decline for the network, which pioneered 24-hour news in the 1980s, and was for years the top-rated news channel. It has in recent years suffered intense competition from Fox News and MSNBC, which both now outperform it in almost every time slot.

The figures also raise questions about the future of Piers Morgan, hired to shake up its prime-time schedule with an hour-long weeknight interview show. He drew an average of 417,000 viewers, a fall of 50 per cent and the network's worst figure for the slot since the early 1990s. Morgan's show is largely admired by critics. But his audience is volatile, and seems to vary according to the calibre of guests. In early 2011, when he took over from octogenarian Larry King, who boasted around 600,000 viewers, Morgan said his show should be judged "by how we settle down in between six months and a year". By that measure, he's in trouble.

May saw CNN's average audience fall to 388,000, of which a mere 113,000 are adults in the 25-54 age bracket that advertisers covet. The figures represent an exponential increase in the rate of decline for the channel, which is also undermined by the internet's rise in popularity as a breaking news source.

They also suggest that CNN is losing viewers quicker than rivals. For Fox, comparable figures (1.65m and 319,000) are down just under 10 per cent annually. MSNBC (658,000 and 213,000) is declining by around 20 per cent.

"It's really a bloodletting; there's no other way to describe it," says Robert Thompson, professor of Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. "The biggest problem is inherent in their brand. They are trying to stick to old-fashioned, unbiased news broadcasting when their rivals have worked out that to draw an audience when there aren't major stories breaking you need to do the opposite."

CNN, based in Atlanta, retains an expensive network of overseas bureaux and is still regarded as the nation's most reliable TV news brand. It has resisted the temptation to follow Fox and MSNBC in using partisan anchors.

As a result, CNN remains a go-to destination only when major breaking news stories unfold. May 2012 was particularly tough because it was a relatively quiet news month � whereas May 2011 saw the killing of Osama Bin Laden and major tornadoes in Missouri and Alabama.

CNN is hoping that two high-profile hires, the chef-turned-TV-star Anthony Bourdain and ABC News star John Berman will help to stem the bleeding.

Turn-offs: CNN's flop presenters

Piers Morgan
Hired in a blaze of publicity almost 18 months ago, the former Mirror and News of the World editor brings Fleet Street bombasity to his 9pm slot. But ratings for the show are highly volatile and on one night recently hit a low of just 39k in the all important 25-54 bracket.

Erin Burnett
"Smart, entertaining, and ahead of the news," is how CNN describes its 7pm anchor. The public must see things differently, given this respected (but perhaps monochrome) former financial journalist's prime-time show draws only 409,000 viewers � of which a woeful 46,000 belong to the 24-54 demographic that advertisers covet.

Anderson Cooper
Famed for his black T-shirts, perfect quiff and the live-on-air takedowns of public figures (on a slot he calls "Keeping 'em Honest!"), Mr Cooper is a cable news institution and the unofficial "face" of CNN. That hasn't stopped him managing to lose a quarter of his viewers in the past 12 months.

Wolf Blitzer
Bearded, bespectacled, and a fixture of CNN's line-up for more than 20 years, the ever-reliable Blitzer should be required viewing in an election year. But viewing figures for his 4-6pm Situation Room, billed as a "raw, unfiltered, and live" breaking news programme for the just-got-home-from-work crowd, are down more than half.
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I liked it when they used to show "Crossfire" but now I pretty much only watch when I am "forced" to at the airports or when I flip through the channels and they have her on
http://edition.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/sesay.isha.html
but that's pretty much it.
I admit I like watching Fox News because the women are pretty.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fox-friends-first-goes-on-the-air_b114985

If it wasn't for that I probably wouldn't watch it as much. I need to have something to keep informed of the current events going on so this seems to be best for me.

[Leon]

Piers Morgan is just terrible.

[Steelrails]

Two problems- First they are trying to be too "British".

Second- Sensationalism and bias, particularly on cnn.com. It's a constant stream of overblown made-up trends and blowing certain stories out of proportion. A front-page story on an Afghan female boxer or the blatant one-sidedness of anti-regime Middle Eastern stories means that its losing credibility. Sorry, but the boxer story should be a side piece, not the big lead. Every other day its some story about women in the Middle East. Yes, gender issues are a big concern there, but most people there are more concerned about their jobs, health care, government, etc. It's fancified burqa-porn. Look at today's story- Transgender Life in Pakistan. WTH does that have to do with anything? Stop bombarding me with that silliness and talk to me about drone strikes in Pakistan or army loyalty in Pakistan or Pakistan-India relations.

That and their blatantly anti-Assad slant is questionable at best. You'd think after Egypt and Libya replacing one gang of thugs with another, they'd get the clue that the Syrian rebels probably aren't going to be the warmest and fuzziest people. And do they even consider the fact that if Assad doesn't kill the rebels, the rebels are going to kill him and most Alawites in Syria?

That and their bogus trend stories- Bloggers in Syria driving the revolution, A couple dudes rape lesbians in S. Africa and suddenly there is an epidemic of "corrective rape" in S. Africa.

cnn.com is no longer on my internet speeddial. Al-Jazeera has taken its spot. At least they report on the Middle East with some perspective.

[Leon]

[comm]

[Steelrails]

In defense of Cnn they did strike minor news story but comic gold with the 'Bear Eats Serial Killer' story

[caniff]

Corporate/govt shill propaganda hackery crap at its most nauseating.

[comm]

[Squire]

As a Brit I've found the bias in other American news shows to be distasteful. I quite like CNN world news, and would be disappointed if it went the way of other US news channels

[fermentation]

[sml7285]

[recessiontime]

We've all known that CNN has been doing badly over the last decade. What shocked me was how fox news was actually mopping the floor with them. I doubt any of us on this site will care if CNN just disappeared....most of us get our news online anyway. I certainly don't take news from the TV as anything but corporate propaganda which is only mildly amusing.

[Privateer]

I used to see CNN as a professional news organization - even when they were cheerleading the military during Gulf War one, I saw it as a temporary lapse - but now most people see them as just more propaganda. And if you're going to watch propaganda, Fox is more entertaining, in a kind of twisted reality TV / Jerry Springer show way.

And Piers Morgan - why him?

[alwaysgood]

[Kimbop]

Virtually all CNN "personalities" are democrats.

The article's description of the CNN as being "old-fashioned, unbiased news broadcasting" is ironically and paradoxically as foolish as the CNN itself.