"We're winning the quality war already, not the ratings war. About a year from now, we should be able to establish consistent ratings growth." That's what CNN president Jonathan Klein said in April 2005. But 14 months later, the ratings growth may not be evident yet. In the second quarter of 2006 CNN was flat in total day (up 2 percent in the demo and 1 percent in total viewers) and down in primetime (down 18 percent in the demo and 3 percent in total viewers) compared to the second quarter of 2005.

Paula Zahn averaged 148,000 demo viewers in the second quarter, down 23 percent from the same quarter in 2005...