By RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com, originally filed Tuesday, February 23, 2016
CNN president Jeff Zucker sent out a memo to CNN employees earlier this week noting how well the Atlanta-based (ish) network is doing in the midst of a presidential campaign with its strongest ratings since the 2008 campaign.
And while Fox News continues to win in overall viewers, CNN has been able to edge ahead at times among younger demos during prime time in recent months. (Zucker cited October as one of the months. That actually isn't correct. Fox beat CNN - barely - 294,000 to 293,000 among 25 to 54 year olds, according to Nielsen data.)
CNN's New York-based leader said the network "is as close to Fox in viewers as we have been since 2009 and adults 25-54 as we have been since 2008.”
The primetime gap has widened a bit recently to 1.14 million so far this year from an average of 1.08 million in overall viewers last year. (Fox doubles CNN's total audience on average this year.) The gap was 760,000 in 2008 and grew to 1.43 million in 2010. Fox has been beating CNN among 25 to 54 year olds by a much tighter 83,000 this year, down from 104,000 last year. The gap was 41,000 in 2008.
Fox News, by the way, has been the No. 1 basic cable network for five consecutive weeks, something it hasn't done since the start of the Iraq War in 2003.
CNN has aired several presidential debates already and has three more scheduled. It has supplemented those debates with highly rated town halls featuring different candidates.
“CNN is the only cable news network this cycle to host debates with both sides of the aisle,” Zucker wrote.
He also noted CNN's dominance over MSNBC: "CNN is beating MSNBC for the fourth straight year and second straight year in prime time."
The entire memo is here:
CNN – I could not be prouder of where CNN is today. Relevant, timely, topical, breaking news on a daily basis and owning the political conversation, through our daily coverage, programming and debates and town halls. CNN will broadcast three of the next four Presidential debates (two Republican and one Democratic), including this Thursday night's GOP debate in Houston, moderated by Wolf Blitzer. This is a testament to something very important — CNN is the only cable news network this cycle to host debates with both sides of the aisle. Through this cycle, CNN is confirmed to host 15 debates and town halls; the most anyone else is scheduled to host is four. From an audience perspective, the viewers are watching. CNN is enjoying its best ratings since 2008 (both total day viewers and prime time demos). Compared to 2012, CNN has grown its share of the cable news audience by 6 points, while Fox's share has declined 4 points and MSNBC has declined 7 points. CNN is as close to Fox in viewers as we have been since 2009 and adults 25-54 as we have been since 2008. And CNN is beating MSNBC for the fourth straight year and second straight year in prime time. And one final note about how far we have come: CNN beat Fox News in prime time demos in September, October and December. And we are on pace to do so again this month. That would be 4 out of the last 6 months CNN has beaten Fox in prime time demos, the first time that has happened in more than 14 years. I should also note that while the Presidential race has dominated much of our coverage the last few months, our domestic and international coverage of stories as varied as the continuing civil war in Syria, the war against ISIS and the Zika virus in the Western hemisphere has been exceptional.
CNN INTERNATIONAL – Last week, CNNI was honored with two prestigious awards from the Royal Television Society (RTS). First was for our breaking news coverage of last year's Paris Terror Attacks, and Senior International Correspondent Nima Elbagir was named Journalist of the Year. Two tremendous honors for our unmatched international team. While much of the focus of late has been on the US Presidential race, the teams at CNNI have continued to provide unparalleled coverage of the major events around the world, keeping all of CNN's coverage well-rounded and current. None of our competitors has this advantage.
CNN DIGITAL – A phenomenal start to the year, with CNN ranked the number two site in multiplatform uniques, ahead of Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today . CNN is number one in video, multiplatform views and social.
CNNPOLITICS – We have begun the election year just as we ended it in 2015: the number one source of political news, with record breaking traffic to begin 2016. CNNpolitics.com was the dominant source of political news in January, with a record 26 million multiplatform unique visitors, staggering triple digit growth compared to January 2015. In the first month of this year, CNN Politics outperformed all competitors in comScore's Politics category, easily besting second-place HuffPost Politics and maintained its dominant position as the Web's number one source of political news. For perspective on just how dominant CNN is, its 26 million multiplatform unique visitors in January more than doubled the number of visitors to Fox News Politics and MSNBC TV, its 55 million video starts (up 85% over the prior year) was more than double its closest competitor and triple the video starts of Fox News Politics and MSNBC TV, and its 170 million multiplatform views in January (up 265% over the prior year) nearly doubled its closest competitor, HuffPost Politics, and outperformed third place Politico by almost 100 million views.
GREAT BIG STORY – We launched this new business less than four months ago. And it is off to a tremendous start. It is reaching 26 million people every week and the average age of its user is 25 years old. The content is resonating deeply: GBS stories have been shared by fans 180,000 times in the last thirty days. And this months sees the launch of two fantastic brand partnerships, with custom campaigns from Hewlett Packard and GE.
CNN en ESPAÑOL – Our excellent political coverage isn't limited to just our domestic network. CNN en Español and the Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies at the City University of New York have partnered to provide an exclusive focus on Latino voters in America, the fastest growing minority voting block that could play an instrumental role in determining the next President. Their research efforts will be shared across several of our platforms, truly tapping into something special that CNNE can provide, and enhancing all our coverage.
HLN – With new leadership in place, HLN is busy working on what its new programming lineup will look like. Meanwhile, Robin Meade and the Morning Express team continue their enormously successful run. As we bring HLN closer to CNN, in terms of both how it is run and programmed, we are already seeing improvement. Stay tuned for more from HLN very soon.
ORIGINAL SERIES – We are about to launch our newest series on CNN, Race for the White House, narrated and executive produced by Kevin Spacey. This dramatic look at some of the most fascinating (and dirtiest) US Presidential races in history will premiere March 6th at 10 pm ET, immediately following the Democratic debate in Flint, Michigan. Also coming in the next two months are the return of The Wonder List, Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown and the premieres of The Eighties and Kamau Bell's United Shades of America.
CNN EXPERIENCE – I wanted you to know that our CNN Sales team has been hosting many of the Madison Avenue advertising agencies in a series of meetings, called the CNN Experience, in our studios in New York. The purpose is to let the advertising world know about all the tremendous success we are currently enjoying and look ahead to what's on tap for 2017. The meetings have gone very well, and the Sales team has done an excellent job taking advantage of all of our recent wins. Quite frankly, these meetings could not be coming at a better time.
It has been an extraordinary start to 2016. I want to thank each of you for all you do, every day, around the world, to make this happen. We have, as they say, miles to go before we sleep. But despite all the long hours and non-stop news, I hope you are having as much fun with all of this as I am. Thank you.
Jeff
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