How CNN Got Its Groove Back

From today’s NYT:

After a long malaise, CNN is finally getting its swagger back. In the last four years CNN, which includes not just the flagship American network, but Headline News, CNN International and CNN.com, doubled its profits. “There are not a lot of 27-year-old companies in America that can make that claim,” Mr. Walton said.

All three cable news networks — CNN, Fox News and MSNBC — have enjoyed ratings bumps during the primaries. But CNN is able to brag about something it had not been able to since 2001: it topped Fox News in the prime-time ratings for a single month in the 25 to 54 age category, the group most coveted by advertisers.

In February, CNN attracted an average of 750,000 viewers in that category during prime time, compared with 550,000 for Fox News and 363,000 for MSNBC, according to Nielsen. (Across all age groups Fox News remained No. 1, with an average of 2.2 million viewers in prime time, compared with 2 million for CNN.)

“If you look at the ratings, in 2006 they stopped the bleeding,” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. “In 2007, that continued, and there was some overall growth at CNN.”

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