Around the Net

How CNN's Breaking News Strategy Leads To Ratings Slumps

Covering breaking news -- CNN's signature -- is sure to bring in audiences when there's a big news story, but when that's not the case, the network "slumps back down to third place in the ratings," writes Alex Sherman.

CNN's rivals started with a similar strategy, but have found more success in branching out -- like MSNBC, "which now relies heavily on political analysis and personalities such as Rachel Maddow."

Dependence on breaking news can also hurt ad sales. Since they sell up to 70% of their ad inventory in advance, "the problem for cable networks is that they can’t quickly monetize surprising news events that bring in huge audiences," writes Sherman.

Read the whole story at Bloomberg Businessweek »

Next story loading loading..