Six Minutes: The Future of CNN

Today’s media must-read is Jacques Steinberg’s profile of CNN’s Jon Klein.

Klein’s trying “to increase the average amount of time viewers spend watching CNN’s prime-time lineup by an average of 30 seconds a month for the next 12 months – for what would be a total gain of six minutes.”

As Steinberg says, “lest there be any doubt that those six minutes are crucial,” the average Fox News prime time viewer watches for 26 minutes, while CNN’s average prime time viewer watches 19. Those six minutes are almost the entire cable news game.

He’s got a tough road ahead of him — he’s the fifth person to head CNN’s U.S. operations in the last five years — but Klein’s certainly doing one thing right: He’s creating buzz about all the energy at the original Cable News Network.

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