SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
CNN on the Frontiers of the Commercialization of News
"CNN Tests New Ways to Mix Ads With News," a Variety headline (3/5/15) declared, over a story about how the cable news channel has "gotten over itself" and has "looked for more ways to weave ad messages into programming."
Mar 12, 2015
"CNN Tests New Ways to Mix Ads With News," a Variety headline (3/5/15) declared, over a story about how the cable news channel has "gotten over itself" and has "looked for more ways to weave ad messages into programming."
Variety TV editor Brian Steinberg reports that the Time Warner outlet used to worry "that mixing editorial and advertising too closely could foster a perception that CNN's journalism was swayed by a sponsor."
But faced with falling ad revenues, Time Warner is seeing opportunities to sell ads during programs that are "not so tied to breaking news." That's why on its New Day morning show, "a logo for General Mills' Fiber One cereal shows up during weather reports."
Katrina Cukaj, executive vice president of CNN ad sales, says she "is open to the idea of running an advertiser's logo in its bottom-of-the-screen zipper, so long as the appearance is tailored appropriately": "If it's financial information, if it's actual data from the markets," she told Variety, "I could potentially put a financial advertiser on there."
Yes, combining real financial information with corporate-selected data designed to sell financial products-that could never confuse anybody, could it?
"As coverage of the 2016 elections gets underway, [Cukaj] said, CNN sees a potential chance to bring advertisers into sponsorship of quizzes and polls." In other words, CNN likes the idea of making its presentation of public opinion dependent on corporations who are paying good money to influence public opinion.
Variety presents CNN's new tack-which it depicts as part of a broader trend throughout the TV industry-as advertisers "helping to bring news from an outlet to a consumer, as opposed to interrupting or influencing it." But it's silly to pretend that embedding advertising inside the news isn't going to impact content.
"Placing these ads in some of CNN's more traditional programming might be difficult," the trade paper notes, citing Donna Speciale, president of ad sales for CNN parent unit Turner Broadcasting: "In breaking news, you don't know what's going to be happening and a lot of it is tragedy. Clients don't want to get near that, and that environment is not ideal" for selling the right to stick your logo in the news frame. "But the increase of programming that has elements of entertainment in it lends the network the opportunity to test ideas 'CNN hasn't had in the past,' she said."
It's as though the "increase in programming that has elements of entertainment in it" has nothing to do with the fact that "clients don't want to get near" tragedy and unpredictable news: Really, there is a cause-and-effect relationship here, and putting the ads inside the news rather than next to it is only going to make CNN and other newscasters less eager to give viewers information that doesn't lend itself to being commercialized like that.
Variety's Time Warner sources assure us they are "mindful of maintaining boundaries between ads and editorial content." Which somehow calls to mind Fry from the sci-fi comedy Futurama, a character who wakes up in the year 3000 and is shocked to find that corporations are inserting ads into his dreams. When a friend asks, "Didn't you have ads in the 21st century?" he responds:
Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games...and on buses and milk cartons and T-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.
CNN is going to have ads in its weather reports and financial crawls and polls and quizzes...but not in its plane crash coverage, no siree.
Not yet, anyway.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
© 2023 Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)
Jim Naureckas
Jim Naureckas is editor of FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting). He is the co-author of "Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error." He was an investigative reporter for In These Times and managing editor of the Washington Report on the Hemisphere.
"CNN Tests New Ways to Mix Ads With News," a Variety headline (3/5/15) declared, over a story about how the cable news channel has "gotten over itself" and has "looked for more ways to weave ad messages into programming."
Variety TV editor Brian Steinberg reports that the Time Warner outlet used to worry "that mixing editorial and advertising too closely could foster a perception that CNN's journalism was swayed by a sponsor."
But faced with falling ad revenues, Time Warner is seeing opportunities to sell ads during programs that are "not so tied to breaking news." That's why on its New Day morning show, "a logo for General Mills' Fiber One cereal shows up during weather reports."
Katrina Cukaj, executive vice president of CNN ad sales, says she "is open to the idea of running an advertiser's logo in its bottom-of-the-screen zipper, so long as the appearance is tailored appropriately": "If it's financial information, if it's actual data from the markets," she told Variety, "I could potentially put a financial advertiser on there."
Yes, combining real financial information with corporate-selected data designed to sell financial products-that could never confuse anybody, could it?
"As coverage of the 2016 elections gets underway, [Cukaj] said, CNN sees a potential chance to bring advertisers into sponsorship of quizzes and polls." In other words, CNN likes the idea of making its presentation of public opinion dependent on corporations who are paying good money to influence public opinion.
Variety presents CNN's new tack-which it depicts as part of a broader trend throughout the TV industry-as advertisers "helping to bring news from an outlet to a consumer, as opposed to interrupting or influencing it." But it's silly to pretend that embedding advertising inside the news isn't going to impact content.
"Placing these ads in some of CNN's more traditional programming might be difficult," the trade paper notes, citing Donna Speciale, president of ad sales for CNN parent unit Turner Broadcasting: "In breaking news, you don't know what's going to be happening and a lot of it is tragedy. Clients don't want to get near that, and that environment is not ideal" for selling the right to stick your logo in the news frame. "But the increase of programming that has elements of entertainment in it lends the network the opportunity to test ideas 'CNN hasn't had in the past,' she said."
It's as though the "increase in programming that has elements of entertainment in it" has nothing to do with the fact that "clients don't want to get near" tragedy and unpredictable news: Really, there is a cause-and-effect relationship here, and putting the ads inside the news rather than next to it is only going to make CNN and other newscasters less eager to give viewers information that doesn't lend itself to being commercialized like that.
Variety's Time Warner sources assure us they are "mindful of maintaining boundaries between ads and editorial content." Which somehow calls to mind Fry from the sci-fi comedy Futurama, a character who wakes up in the year 3000 and is shocked to find that corporations are inserting ads into his dreams. When a friend asks, "Didn't you have ads in the 21st century?" he responds:
Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games...and on buses and milk cartons and T-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.
CNN is going to have ads in its weather reports and financial crawls and polls and quizzes...but not in its plane crash coverage, no siree.
Not yet, anyway.
Jim Naureckas
Jim Naureckas is editor of FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting). He is the co-author of "Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error." He was an investigative reporter for In These Times and managing editor of the Washington Report on the Hemisphere.
"CNN Tests New Ways to Mix Ads With News," a Variety headline (3/5/15) declared, over a story about how the cable news channel has "gotten over itself" and has "looked for more ways to weave ad messages into programming."
Variety TV editor Brian Steinberg reports that the Time Warner outlet used to worry "that mixing editorial and advertising too closely could foster a perception that CNN's journalism was swayed by a sponsor."
But faced with falling ad revenues, Time Warner is seeing opportunities to sell ads during programs that are "not so tied to breaking news." That's why on its New Day morning show, "a logo for General Mills' Fiber One cereal shows up during weather reports."
Katrina Cukaj, executive vice president of CNN ad sales, says she "is open to the idea of running an advertiser's logo in its bottom-of-the-screen zipper, so long as the appearance is tailored appropriately": "If it's financial information, if it's actual data from the markets," she told Variety, "I could potentially put a financial advertiser on there."
Yes, combining real financial information with corporate-selected data designed to sell financial products-that could never confuse anybody, could it?
"As coverage of the 2016 elections gets underway, [Cukaj] said, CNN sees a potential chance to bring advertisers into sponsorship of quizzes and polls." In other words, CNN likes the idea of making its presentation of public opinion dependent on corporations who are paying good money to influence public opinion.
Variety presents CNN's new tack-which it depicts as part of a broader trend throughout the TV industry-as advertisers "helping to bring news from an outlet to a consumer, as opposed to interrupting or influencing it." But it's silly to pretend that embedding advertising inside the news isn't going to impact content.
"Placing these ads in some of CNN's more traditional programming might be difficult," the trade paper notes, citing Donna Speciale, president of ad sales for CNN parent unit Turner Broadcasting: "In breaking news, you don't know what's going to be happening and a lot of it is tragedy. Clients don't want to get near that, and that environment is not ideal" for selling the right to stick your logo in the news frame. "But the increase of programming that has elements of entertainment in it lends the network the opportunity to test ideas 'CNN hasn't had in the past,' she said."
It's as though the "increase in programming that has elements of entertainment in it" has nothing to do with the fact that "clients don't want to get near" tragedy and unpredictable news: Really, there is a cause-and-effect relationship here, and putting the ads inside the news rather than next to it is only going to make CNN and other newscasters less eager to give viewers information that doesn't lend itself to being commercialized like that.
Variety's Time Warner sources assure us they are "mindful of maintaining boundaries between ads and editorial content." Which somehow calls to mind Fry from the sci-fi comedy Futurama, a character who wakes up in the year 3000 and is shocked to find that corporations are inserting ads into his dreams. When a friend asks, "Didn't you have ads in the 21st century?" he responds:
Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games...and on buses and milk cartons and T-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.
CNN is going to have ads in its weather reports and financial crawls and polls and quizzes...but not in its plane crash coverage, no siree.
Not yet, anyway.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy