CNN Ad Sales EVP on Selling Traditional Newscasts vs. Original Series

By Merrill Knox 

CNNLogo_11.24CNN Worldwide EVP of ad sales Katrina Cukaj talks to Capital New York about the differences between selling traditional newscasts and original series, which the network continues to add to its lineup:

There are so many incredible headlines out there, and it is a different sort of storytelling, and I think you probably got that from Jeff [Zucker]’s presentation [at the upfront]. We do storytelling on a newscast very differently than we do storytelling in an original series. I think the opportunity for us is to engage with our viewers and our advertisers in unique storytelling ways, so I think Jeff used the example of the way Anderson Cooper covers Libya is going to be a little bit different than the way an Anthony Bourdain covers Libya, and that is the positioning we are using in the marketplace.

Some of the topics are being ripped from the headlines, and we have new storytellers now, though these production companies that we are working with in the longform, to get more engaged, deeper into what some of those headline stories were, and “Chicagoland” was a perfect example of that. The three key pillars for us is the original reporting, the original series and films, and with all of our digital distribution, basically taking and driving that scale and reach across the board.

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