CNN Finishes Dead Last in Advertiser Favoured Demographic

Last Updated on Tuesday, 27 October 2009 00:09 Tuesday, 27 October 2009 00:09

cnnlogo CNN appears to have suffered a dismal October, finishing in fourth place in the advertiser favoured demographic, even falling behind its sister network, HLN. As some media analysts have also pointed out, this isn't the first time this year that CNN has finished dead last, behind Fox News, MSNBC and of course, HLN. Bill Carter of the New York Times reported the news initially, saying;

The official monthly numbers will be finalized at 4 p.m. Monday and will include results from Friday. CNN executives conceded that will not change the competitive standing for the month. CNN will still be last in prime time.

That means CNN’s programs were behind not only Fox News and MSNBC, but even its own sister network HLN (formerly Headline News.) That was the first time CNN had finished that poorly with its prime-time shows.

The results demonstrate once more the apparent preference of viewers for opinion-oriented shows from the news networks in prime time.

Time Magazine's James Poniewozik also chimed in with his thoughts on the news;

CNN is a sister company to TIME within Time Warner, so let me be unambiguous and without corporate favor when I say that its latest round of primetime ratings are in the dumpster. Bill Carter of the New York Times reports that, for the first time, CNN will finish October in fourth place among cable-news networks in the advertiser-followed demographic. The network even lost to itself, in that sister net HLN beat it out.

However, Inside Cable News has spotted a discrepancy in the reporting, and comments;

"I saw that and thought, that’s wrong on two counts: it’s wrong because Carter never said that and it’s wrong because CNN had already finished in 4th place twice earlier this year. So I re-read Carter’s story and, it turns out I should have been paying closer attention to Carter’s article when I referenced it, because whereas I had previously thought Carter didn’t actually spell it out that CNN landed in 4th for the first time..."

Jeff Bercovici of The Daily Finance also saw the numbers, and has managed to garner some feedback from CNN themselves in the form of an email. Obviously, the network is on the defensive;

CNN and HLN are both beating MSNBC in the key demographic for the month of October (total day). As we have said for years, we measure our audience across the day and across all of CNN’s platforms, not just prime time. This is the basis for advertising sales. We’re extremely pleased that we are the only news organization that has two television networks delivering large audiences thanks to the continued growth of HLN.

But CNN’s share of the total-day 25-to-54 ratings pie is actually down 4 percent year-over-year, falling from 26 percent to 22 percent. Meanwhile, MSNBC is also down (from 20 to 17 percent), while Fox is up 6 percent, to 36 percent, and HLN is up 2 percent, to 16 percent.

With all that said, and all of the reporting in the media circles, there really is no getting away from the fact that CNN has finished dead last in the demographic which pulls in the most revenue from an advertising standpoint... again.