Is CNN Taking The Wrong Approach With Its New Web Channel? It Shouldn’t Be “The Same Stuff In A Different Wrapper”

As has been rumored for months on this site, CNN is preparing to launch an online news channel later this year. (Today’s press release describes it as a “premium product” coming this fall.) But an industry insider with significant knowledge of the product is skeptical about the project. In an e-mail to TVNewser, the insider says:

“CNN’s plan of streaming an entirely new live channel of content seems like a significant waste of money and resources. Experiments with live all-news-channel streaming have been dismal failures. The costs are very high and the demand is low. People in offices need to keep the volume down. The content should be UNbundled, not REbundled. It also seems like an end-run around the MSOs, who would certainly complain if CNN were streaming its cable channel.”

“CNN.com would benefit from making original content available in ways that take advantage of the web’s strength — the ability to view news in a non-linear fashion. They could have a killer site if they found new and different ways to tell great stories, and not simply put the same stuff in a different wrapper.”

> TVNewser, May 25: “CNN is in the early stages of development on a 24-hour broadband news channel for Internet users.”