The tvnewserati continue to weigh in on Bill Carter‘s story on CNN’s prime time ratings, including former CBS Evening News EP turned MSNBC president turned CEO of Vault.com Erik Sorensen.
Barely mentioned is CNBC. Despite the ongoing financial crisis in America, NBC’s other cable information jewel can’t seem to punch through in Prime Time — but Carter nor NBC mention that anywhere in the Times’ coverage. Yet, like CNN, CNBC has long monetized a smaller Nielsen audience by charging higher CPM’s and packaging sales against audience on multiple platforms and dayparts…In the current media era, the bigger better story is that CNN is a multi-media, multi-platform “best practice” in the industry. Walton tried to get the point across but had trouble being heard above the throwback din.
Former CNN correspondent Grant Perry writes about the piece on his blog:
[CNN] has steadily diluted its once-powerful brand over the years by straying from its straight-down-the-middle approach. While CNN clearly still displays its journalistic chops at times, it also airs a lot of nonsense that is better suited to ‘E!’…Back then CNN was perhaps less polished but actually was more professional. News was king and news “personalities” were less important.