The Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational
news
News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...
channel
Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to:
Geography
* Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water.
Australia
* Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...
and
website
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...
headquartered in
Atlanta,
Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American
media proprietor Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, cable news ch ...
and
Reese Schonfeld
Maurice Wolfe "Reese" Schonfeld (November 5, 1931July 28, 2020) was an American television journalist and executive. Trained as a lawyer, he co-founded CNN with Ted Turner in 1980, and went on to establish Food Network in 1993.
Early life and e ...
as a 24-hour
cable news channel, and presently owned by the
Manhattan-based media conglomerate
Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at 230 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was formed after the spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T, and its merger with D ...
(WBD), CNN was the first television channel to provide
24-hour news coverage and the first all-news television channel in the United States.
As of February 2023, CNN had 80 million television households as subscribers in the US. According to
Nielsen, in June 2021 CNN ranked third in viewership among cable news networks, behind
Fox News and
MSNBC, averaging 580,000 viewers throughout the day, down 49% from a year earlier, amid sharp declines in viewers across all cable news networks. While CNN ranked 14th among all basic cable networks in 2019, then jumped to 7th during a major surge for the three largest cable news networks (completing a rankings streak of Fox News at number 5 and
MSNBC at number 6 for that year), it settled back to number 11 in 2021 and had further declined to number 21 in 2022.
Globally, CNN programming has aired through
CNN International, seen by viewers in over 212 countries and territories; since May 2019, however, the US domestic version has absorbed international news coverage in order to reduce programming costs. The American version, sometimes referred to as CNN (US), is also available in Canada, some islands of the Caribbean and in Japan, where it was first broadcast on
CNNj in 2003, with simultaneous translation in Japanese.
History
The Cable News Network launched at 5:00 p.m.
Eastern Time on June 1, 1980. After an introduction by
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, cable news ch ...
, the husband and wife team of
David Walker and
Lois Hart anchored the channel's first newscast.
Burt Reinhardt, the executive vice president of CNN, hired most of the channel's first 200 employees, including the network's first
news anchor,
Bernard Shaw.
Since its debut, CNN has expanded its reach to several cable and satellite television providers, websites, and specialized closed-circuit channels (such as
CNN Airport). The company has 42 bureaus (11 domestic, 31 international), more than 900 affiliated local stations (which also receive news and features content via the video newswire service CNN Newsource), and several regional and foreign-language networks around the world. The channel's success made a bona-fide mogul of founder Ted Turner and set the stage for conglomerate
Time Warner
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
's (later WarnerMedia which merged with
Discovery Inc. forming
Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at 230 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was formed after the spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T, and its merger with D ...
) eventual acquisition of the
Turner Broadcasting System
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (lat ...
in 1996.
Programming
CNN's current weekday schedule consists mostly of rolling news programming during daytime hours, followed by in-depth news and information programs during the evening and prime time hours. The network's morning programming consists of ''
Early Start'', an early-morning news program hosted by
Christine Romans and Laura Jarrett at 5–6 a.m. ET. This is followed by ''
CNN This Morning'', the network's
morning show, hosted by
Poppy Harlow and
Kaitlan Collins with Derek Van Dam, who replaced original co-host
Don Lemon, at 6–9 a.m. ET. ''
CNN News Central
''CNN News Central'' is a daytime news program carried by the U.S. cable news channel CNN. It premiered on April 3, 2023, as part of a phase-out of CNN's existing rolling news block '' CNN Newsroom'', with its afternoon edition premiering two w ...
'' serves as the network's rolling news block on weekdays (replacing its previous rolling news block ''
CNN Newsroom'' in April 2023), with its morning edition anchored by
John Berman,
Kate Bolduan, and
Sara Sidner
Sara Sidner (born May 31, 1972) is an American journalist. She is a correspondent for CNN and CNN International based at CNN's Los Angeles bureau. She also anchored ''Big Picture with Sara Sidner'' on CNN+, the network's shortlived subscription ...
, and its afternoon edition anchored by
Brianna Keilar, Boris Sanchez, and
Jim Sciutto. In between these two blocks is ''
Inside Politics'', hosted by
John King at noon–1 p.m. ET.
CNN's late afternoon and early evening lineup consists of ''
The Lead with Jake Tapper'' at 4–5 p.m. ET and ''
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
''The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer'' (also simply ''The Situation Room'') is a daily newscast on CNN hosted by Wolf Blitzer that first aired on August 8, 2005.
The show currently airs weekdays live from 6:00p.m. to 7:00pm ET from CNN's studio ...
'' at 5–7 p.m. ET. the programs are sometimes anchored by
Brianna Keilar and/or
John Berman when Tapper and Blitzer are not present. The network's evening and prime time lineup shifts towards more in-depth programming, including ''
Erin Burnett OutFront'' at 7 p.m. ET, ''
Anderson Cooper 360°'' at 8 p.m. ET, and ''CNN Primetime'' at 9 p.m. ET, which features a rotation of various special reports and interviews. The 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. hours are filled by ''CNN Tonight'', which are anchored by
Laura Coates
Laura Coates is an American attorney and legal analyst for CNN. Since 2017, she has hosted a talk radio show, ''The Laura Coates Show'', on SiriusXM's Urban View. In January 2021, ''The Laura Coates Show'' moved to SiriusXM's POTUS.
Education
C ...
and
Alisyn Camerota respectively.
Weekend primetime—from 9 p.m. ET on Saturday and 8 p.m. ET on Sunday—is dedicated mostly to
factual programming
Factual television is a genre of non-fiction television programming that documents actual events and people. These types of programs are also described as observational documentary, fly on the wall, docudrama, and reality television. The genre ...
, such as
documentary specials and
miniseries
A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...
, and documentary-style
reality series (such as ''
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown'' and ''
United Shades of America
''United Shades of America'' is a Cable News Network (CNN) American documentary television series starring comedian W. Kamau Bell
Walter Kamau Bell (born January 26, 1973) is an American stand-up comic and television host. He has hosted the C ...
''), as well as acquired documentary films presented under the banner ''
CNN Films''. The network's weekend morning programming consists of ''CNN Newsroom'' (simulcast from CNN International) at 4–6 a.m. ET every Saturday and 3–6 a.m. ET every Sunday, which is followed by the weekend editions of ''
CNN This Morning'', hosted by
Amara Walker and Boris Sanchez, which airs every Saturday at 6–9 a.m. ET and Sunday at 6–8 a.m. ET, and the network's Saturday program ''Smerconish'' with
Michael Smerconish at 9 a.m. ET. Sunday morning lineup consists primarily of
political talk shows, including ''
Inside Politics Sunday'', hosted by
Abby Phillip at 8 a.m. ET, ''
State of the Union
The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current conditio ...
'', co-hosted by
Jake Tapper and
Dana Bash at 9 a.m. ET and repeated at noon ET, and the international affairs program ''
Fareed Zakaria GPS'', hosted by
Fareed Zakaria
Fareed Rafiq Zakaria (; born 20 January 1964) is an Indian-American journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN's ''Fareed Zakaria GPS'' and writes a weekly paid column for ''The Washington Post.'' He has been a columnist ...
at 10 a.m. ET and repeated at 1 p.m. ET. Weekend programming other than aforementioned slots is filled with ''CNN Newsroom.''
For the 2014–15 season, after cancelling ''
Piers Morgan Tonight'' (which, itself, replaced the long-running ''
Larry King Live''), CNN experimented with running factual and reality-style programming during the 9:00 p.m. ET hour, such as
John Walsh's ''
The Hunt'', ''
This Is Life with Lisa Ling
''This Is Life with Lisa Ling'' is a CNN original documentary television series produced by Brooklyn-based production company Part2 Pictures and American journalist Lisa Ling, who is also the show's host. The program was announced on April 14, 2 ...
'', and
Mike Rowe's ''
Somebody's Gotta Do It
''Somebody's Gotta Do It'' is a program that originally aired on CNN and later aired on TBN with host Mike Rowe. The show premiered on October 8, 2014. On May 13, 2016, Mike Rowe announced on his website MikeRowe.com that he and CNN had agreed ...
''. Then-president
Jeff Zucker
Jeffrey Adam Zucker (born April 9, 1965) is an American former media executive. Between January 2013 and February 2022, Zucker was the president of CNN Worldwide. Zucker oversaw CNN, CNN International, HLN, and CNN Digital. He was previously C ...
explained that this new lineup was intended to shift CNN away from a reliance on
pundit
A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport).
Origins
The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...
-oriented programs, and attract younger demographics to the network. Zucker stated that the 9:00 p.m. hour could be pre-empted during major news events for expanded coverage. These changes coincided with the introduction of a new imaging campaign for the network, featuring the slogan "Go there".
In May 2014, CNN premiered ''
The Sixties
File:1960s montage.png, Clockwise from top left: U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War; the Beatles led the British Invasion of the U.S. music market; a half-a-million people participate in the Woodstock, 1969 Woodstock Festival; Neil Armstrong ...
'', a documentary miniseries produced by
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...
, and
Gary Goetzman which chronicled the United States in the 1960s. Owing to its success, CNN commissioned follow-ups focusing on other decades.
''
Anderson Cooper 360°'' was expanded to run two hours long, from 8 PM to 10 PM.
By 2019, CNN had produced at least 35 original series. Alongside the Hanks/Goetzman franchise (including the 2018 spin-off ''1968''), CNN has aired other documentary miniseries relating to news and U.S. policies, such as ''The Bush Years'', and ''American Dynasties: The
Kennedys
The Kennedy family is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy be ...
''—which saw the highest ratings of any CNN original series premiere to-date, with 1.7 million viewers. ''Parts Unknown'' concluded after the 2018
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
of its host
Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Michael Bourdain (; June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was an American celebrity chef, author, and travel documentarian who starred in programs focusing on the exploration of international culture, cuisine, and the human condition. Bourdai ...
; CNN announced several new miniseries and docuseries for 2019, including ''American Style'' (a miniseries produced by the digital media company
Vox Media
Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''SB Nation'' (a sports blog network founded in 2005 by ...
), ''The Redemption Project with
Van Jones'', ''Chasing Life with Sanjay Gupta'', ''Tricky Dick'' (a miniseries chronicling
Richard Nixon), ''
The Movies
''The Movies'' is a business simulation game created by Lionhead Studios for Microsoft Windows and ported to Mac OS X by Feral Interactive. Players run a Hollywood film studio, creating films that can be exported from the game. ''The Movies'' wa ...
'' (a spin-off of the Hanks/Goetzman decades miniseries), and ''Once in a Great City: Detroit 1962–64''.
With the takeover of CNN by
Chris Licht
Christopher Andrew Licht (born October 22, 1971) is an American television newsman and producer. Since May 2022, he has been the chairman and CEO of CNN. He is best known as the showrunner and executive producer of ''The Late Show With Stephen Co ...
and Warner Bros. Discovery, it was announced in October 2022 that CNN would cut back on acquisitions and commissions from third-parties as a cost-cutting measure, but Licht stressed that "longform content remains an important pillar of our programming", while the network announced a slate for 2023 that would include commissions such as ''Giuliani: What Happened to America's Mayor?'', ''United States of Scandal'', and ''The 2010s''.
On-air presentation
CNN began broadcasting in the
high-definition 1080i
1080i (also known as Full HD or BT.709) is a combination of frame resolution and scan type. 1080i is used in high-definition television (HDTV) and high-definition video. The number "1080" refers to the number of horizontal lines on the screen. ...
resolution format in September 2007.
This format is now standard for CNN and is available on all major cable and satellite providers.

CNN's political coverage in HD was first given mobility by the introduction of the CNN Election Express bus in October 2007. The Election Express vehicle, capable of five simultaneous HD feeds, was used for the channel's CNN-YouTube presidential debates and for presidential candidate interviews.
In December 2008, CNN introduced a comprehensive redesign of its on-air appearance, which replaced an existing style that had been used since 2004. On-air graphics took a rounded, flat look in a predominantly black, white, and red color scheme, and the introduction of a new box next to the CNN logo for displaying show logos and segment-specific graphics, rather than as a large banner above the lower-third. The redesign also replaced the scrolling ticker with a static "flipper", which could either display a feed of news headlines (both manually inserted and taken from the
RSS
RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...
feeds of CNN.com), or "topical" details related to a story.
CNN's next major redesign was introduced on January 10, 2011, replacing the dark, flat appearance of the 2008 look with a glossier, blue and white color scheme, and moving the secondary logo box to the opposite end of the screen. Additionally, the network began to solely produce its programming in the
16:9 aspect ratio, with standard definition feeds using a
letterboxed version of the HD feed.
On February 18, 2013, the "flipper" was dropped and reverted to a scrolling ticker; originally displayed as a blue background with white text, the ticker was reconfigured a day later with blue text on a white background to match the look of the 'flipper'.
On August 11, 2014, CNN introduced a new graphics package, dropping the glossy appearance for a flat, rectangular scheme incorporating red, white, and black colors, and the
Gotham typeface. The ticker now alternates between general headlines and financial news from
CNN Business, and the secondary logo box was replaced with a smaller box below the CNN bug, which displays either the title,
hashtag
A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...
, or
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
handle for the show being aired or its anchor.
In April 2016, CNN began to introduce a new corporate typeface, known as "CNN Sans", across all of its platforms. Inspired by
Helvetica Neue
Helvetica (originally Neue Haas Grotesk) is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.
Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century (1890 ...
and commissioned after consultations with Troika Design Group, the font family consists of 30 different versions with varying weights and widths to facilitate use across print, television, and digital mediums.
In August 2016, CNN announced the launch of CNN Aerial Imagery and Reporting (CNN AIR), a drone-based news collecting operation to integrate aerial imagery and reporting across all CNN branches and platforms, along with Turner Broadcasting and Time Warner entities.
Staff
On July 27, 2012, CNN president
Jim Walton
James Carr Walton (born June 7, 1948) is an American businessman, currently the heir to the fortune of Walmart, the world's largest retailer. As of October 2022, Walton was the seventeenth-richest person in the world, with a net worth of US$61 b ...
announced he was resigning after 30 years at the network. Walton remained with CNN until the end of that year. In January 2013, former
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
NBCUniversal is primaril ...
President Jeff Zucker replaced Walton.
On January 29, 2013, longtime political analysts
James Carville
Chester James Carville Jr. (born October 25, 1944) is an American political consultant, author, and occasional actor who has strategized for candidates for public office in the United States and in at least 23 nations abroad. A Democrat, he is a ...
and
Mary Matalin
Mary Joe Matalin (born August 19, 1953) is an American political consultant well known for her work with the Republican Party. She has served under President Ronald Reagan, was campaign director for George H. W. Bush, was an assistant to Presi ...
, and fellow political contributor
Erick Erickson
Erick Woods Erickson (born June 3, 1975) is a conservative American radio host and blogger. He hosts a three-hour weekday talk show on WSB 95.5 FM and 750 AM in Atlanta, which is syndicated to other radio stations around the U.S. He also writes ...
were let go by CNN.
In February 2022, Zucker was asked to resign by
Jason Kilar
Jason Alan Kilar (; born April 26, 1971) is an American businessman. He was the CEO of WarnerMedia from May 2020 to April 2022. He was previously an Amazon executive, the founding CEO of the short-lived Vessel, and the CEO of Hulu.
Early life ...
, the chief executive of CNN's owner WarnerMedia, after Zucker's relationship with one of his lieutenants was discovered during the investigation into former CNN primetime host
Chris Cuomo
Christopher Cuomo ( ; born August 9, 1970) is a television journalist anchor at NewsNation, based in New York City. He has previously been the ABC News chief law and justice correspondent and the co-anchor for ABC's '' 20/20'', news anchor for ...
's efforts to control potentially damaging reporting regarding his brother
Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cu ...
, governor of New York. Kilar announced that the interim co-heads would be executive vice presidents Michael Bass,
Amy Entelis
Amy Entelis is the Executive Vice President for Talent and Content Development for CNN Worldwide. She leads the development, production, and acquisition of original, long-form premium content for the network. Entelis is the senior talent executi ...
, and
Ken Jautz
Ken Jautz serves as executive vice president, CNN-US, responsible for HLN, as well as group operations, business affairs and the Newsource affiliate service. Jautz, a longtime CNN and Turner Broadcasting executive, has managed several networks, ...
.
On February 26, 2022, it was announced that
Chris Licht
Christopher Andrew Licht (born October 22, 1971) is an American television newsman and producer. Since May 2022, he has been the chairman and CEO of CNN. He is best known as the showrunner and executive producer of ''The Late Show With Stephen Co ...
—known for his work at MSNBC and CBS—would be the next president of CNN; he was planned to be instated after the spin off and merger of WarnerMedia into
Discovery Inc. Licht started his tenure in May 2022.
Other platforms
Website
CNN launched its website, CNN.com (initially known as ''CNN Interactive''), on August 30, 1995. The site attracted growing interest over its first decade and is now one of the most popular news websites in the world. The widespread growth of blogs,
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social me ...
and
user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion ...
have influenced the site, and blogs in particular have focused CNN's previously scattershot online offerings, most noticeably in the development and launch of
CNN Pipeline
CNN Pipeline was an English language video news service providing both live and on-demand video to subscribers' computers via broadband Internet connections. It was part of the CNN group of news services. The service was subscription-based, and d ...
in late 2005.
In April 2009, CNN.com ranked third place among online global news sites in unique users in the U.S., according to Nielsen/NetRatings; with an increase of 11% over the previous year.
CNN Pipeline was the name of a paid subscription service, its corresponding website, and a content delivery client that provided streams of live video from up to four sources (or "pipes"), on-demand access to CNN stories and reports, and optional pop-up "news alerts" to computer users. The installable client was available to users of
PCs
A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or techn ...
running
Microsoft Windows. There was also a browser-based "web client" that did not require installation. The service was discontinued in July 2007, and was replaced with a free streaming service.
On April 18, 2008, CNN.com was targeted by Chinese hackers in retaliation for the channel's coverage on the
2008 Tibetan unrest
8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9.
In mathematics
8 is:
* a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2.
* a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number ...
. CNN reported that they took preventive measures after news broke of the impending attack.
The company was honored at the 2008
Technology & Engineering Emmy Award
The Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards, or Technology and Engineering Emmys, are one of two sets of Emmy Awards that are presented for outstanding achievement in engineering development in the television industry. The Technology and Enginee ...
s for development and implementation of an integrated and portable IP-based live, edit and store-and-forward digital news gathering (DNG) system. The first use of what would later win CNN this award was in April 2001 when CNN correspondent Lisa Rose Weaver covered, and was detained, for the release of the
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
crew of a damaged electronic surveillance plane after the
Hainan Island incident
The Hainan Island incident occurred on April 1, 2001, when a United States Navy EP-3E ARIES II signals intelligence aircraft and a People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) J-8II interceptor fighter jet collided in mid-air, resulting in an inter ...
. The technology consisted of a videophone produced by 7E Communications Ltd of London, UK. This DNG workflow is used today by the network to receive material worldwide using an
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ances ...
MacBook Pro, various wikt:prosumer#Etymology 2, prosumer and professional digital cameras, software from Streambox Inc., and BGAN terminals from Hughes Network Systems.
On October 24, 2009, CNN launched a new version of the CNN.com website; the revamped site included the addition of a new "sign up" option, in which users can create their own username and profile, and a new "CNN Pulse" (beta) feature, along with a new red color theme. However, most of the news stories archived on the website were deleted.
Blogs
The topical news program ''Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics'' was the first CNN program to feature a round-up of blogs in 2005. Blog coverage was expanded when ''
Inside Politics'' was folded into ''The Situation Room'' (''Inside Politics'' later returned to CNN in 2014, this time hosted by the network's chief national correspondent John King.). In 2006, CNN launched CNN Exchange and CNN iReport, initiatives designed to further introduce and centralize the impact of everything from blogging to citizen journalism within the CNN brand. CNN iReport which features user-submitted photos and video, has achieved considerable traction, with increasingly professional-looking reports filed by amateur journalists, many still in high school or college. The iReport gained more prominence when observers of the Virginia Tech shootings sent-in first hand photos of what was going on during the shootings.
In April 2010, CNN announced via Twitter that it would launch a food blog called "Eatocracy", which will "cover all news related to food – from recalls to health issues to culture". CNN had an internet relay chat (IRC) network at chat.cnn.com. CNN placed a live chat with Benjamin Netanyahu on the network in 1998.
CNNHealth consists of expert doctors answering viewers' questions online at CNN's "The Chart" blog website. Contributors include Drs. Sanjay Gupta (Chief Medical Correspondent), Charles Raison (Mental Health Expert), Otis Brawley (Conditions Expert), Melina Jampolis (Diet and Fitness Expert), Jennifer Shu (Living Well Expert), and Elizabeth Cohen (Senior Medical Correspondent).
Other digital offerings
In early 2008, CNN began maintaining a live streaming broadcast available to cable and satellite broadcasting, satellite subscribers who receive CNN at home (a precursor to the TV Everywhere services that would become popularized by cable and satellite providers beginning with Time Warner's incorporation of the medium).
CNN International is broadcast live, as part of the RealNetworks SuperPass subscription service outside the U.S. CNN also offers several RSS, RSS feeds and podcasts.
CNN also has multiple channels in the popular video-sharing site YouTube, but those videos can only be viewed in the United States, a source of criticism among YouTube users worldwide. In 2014, CNN launched a radio version of their television programming on TuneIn Radio. The network also hosts CNN-10, a daily 10-minute video show visible at the CNN website or YouTube. It replaced the long-running show CNN Student News which had been aired since 1989. It is aimed at a global audience of students, teachers, and adults, and was hosted by Carl Azuz.In fall of 2022, Carl Azuz was replaced by Coy Wire as the host of CNN 10, after leaving CNN due to a "personal decision" according to a CNN spokesperson in a newsletter published on September 18, 2022.
On March 7, 2017, CNN announced the official launch of its virtual reality unit named CNNVR. It will produce 360 videos to its Android (operating system), Android and iOS apps within CNN Digital. It is planning to cover major news events with the online, and digital news team in New York City,
Atlanta, London, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Dubai, Johannesburg, Tokyo, and Beijing.

CNN Newsource is a subscription-based affiliation video service that provides CNN Content (media), content to Network affiliate, television station affiliates with CNN, including terrestrial television, terrestrial stations and international stations. Newsource allows affiliates to download video from CNN, as well as from other affiliates who upload their video to Newsource.
CNN also maintains a wire service known as CNN Wire.
CNN's digital storefront, which sells branded merchandise, household goods, and software, is operated by StackCommerce via partnership.
In 2021, CNN Digital had an average of 144 million unique visitors in the United States according to Comscore, making it the most viewed digital news outlet, ahead of ''The New York Times'', NBC News, Fox News, ''The Washington Post''.
Beme
On November 28, 2016, CNN announced the acquisition of Beme (company), Beme for a reported $25 million. On November 29, 2016, Matt Hackett, co-founder of Beme, announced via an email to its users that the Beme (app), Beme app would be shutting down on January 31, 2017. Since the shutdown of the app, it was announced that CNN intended to use the current talent behind Beme to work on a separate start-up endeavor. Beme's current team will retain full creative control of the new project, which was slated to release in summer 2017. Beme have also brought on other internet stars such as the host of Vsauce 3, Jake Roper, as head of production, who features prominently in Beme co-founder Casey Neistat's vlogs. Beme (company), Beme News has since begun uploading news related video on YouTube.
Films
In October 2012, CNN formed a film division called
CNN Films to distribute and produce made-for-TV and feature documentary film, documentaries. Its first acquisition was a documentary entitled ''Girl Rising'', a documentary narrated by Meryl Streep that focused on the struggles of girls' education.
Radio
In July 2014, Cumulus Media announced that it would end its partnership with ABC News Radio, and enter into a new partnership with CNN to syndicate national and international news content for its stations through Westwood One (current), Westwood One beginning in 2015, including access to a wire service, and digital content for its station websites. Westwood One News, This service is unbranded, allowing individual stations to integrate the content with their own news brands.
As of February 2019, the audio simulcast of CNN is distributed on Entercom's Radio.com website and app.
Specialized channels

Over the years, CNN has launched spin-off networks in the United States and other countries. Channels that currently operate include:
* CNN Brazil – a Brazilian news channel that launched on March 15, 2020. (licensed to Novus Media)
* CNN Chile – a Chilean news channel that launched on December 4, 2008.
* CNN en Español
*
CNN International
* CNN Türk – a Turkish media outlet
* CNN-News18 – an Indian news channel. (licensed to Network 18)
* CNN Indonesia – an Indonesian news channel that launched on August 17, 2015. (licensed to Trans Media)
*
CNNj – a Japanese news outlet
** CNN/US HD – launched for American viewers in late 2010, and is distributed by Japan Cable Television (JCTV) to several different multi-channel TV providers, such as J:COM, SKY PerfecTV!, iTSCOM and the JCTVWiFi service.
* CNN Philippines – a Filipino news channel launched on March 16, 2015 (licensed to Nine Media Corporation and Radio Philippines Network (RPN))
* CNN Prima News – a Czech news channel. (that launched on May 3, 2020, licensed to Prima Group)
* A2 CNN – an Albanian news channel
* Antena 3 CNN – a Romanian news channel. (licensed to Intact Media Group)
* HLN (TV network), HLN – a U.S. basic cable channel (formerly called CNN2 and CNN Headline News)
* CNN Portugal – a Portuguese news channel launched on November 22, 2021. (licensed to Media Capital)
Former channels
CNN has also launched television and online ventures that are no longer in operation, including:
*
CNN Airport
* CNN Checkout Channel (out-of-home place-based custom channel for grocery stores that started in 1991 and shuttered in 1993)
* CNN Italia (an Italian news website launched in partnership with the publishing company Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso, and after with the financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, it launched on November 15, 1999 and closed on September 12, 2003)
*
CNN Pipeline
CNN Pipeline was an English language video news service providing both live and on-demand video to subscribers' computers via broadband Internet connections. It was part of the CNN group of news services. The service was subscription-based, and d ...
(24-hour multi-channel broadband online news service, replaced with CNN.com Live)
* CNN Sports Illustrated (also known as CNNSI; U.S. sports news channel, closed in 2002)
* CNN+ (Spanish TV network), CNN+ (a partner channel in Spain, launched in 1999 joint venture with Sogecable).
* CNN.com Live
* CNNfn (financial channel, closed in December 2004)
* CNN Money Switzerland (Switzerland financial channel, joint venture with MediaGo)
Experiments
CNN launched two specialty news channels for the American market which would later close amid competitive pressure: the sports news channel CNN Sports Illustrated, CNNSI shut down in 2002, while business news channel CNNfn shut down after nine years on the air in December 2004. CNN had a partnership with ''Sports Illustrated'' through the sports website CNNSI.com, but sold the domain name in May 2015. CNNfn's former website used to redirect to money.cnn.com, a product of CNN's strategic partnership with ''Money (magazine), Money'' magazine. ''Money'' and ''Sports Illustrated'' were both Time Warner properties until 2014, when the company's magazine division was corporate spin-off, spun off into the separate Time Inc.
CNN also launched "Great Big Story" in November 2015 to produce content tailored toward younger viewers. It was eventually shut down in September 2020 after building a following of nearly 6 million followers on both Facebook and YouTube.
Bureaus

CNN operates bureaus in the following cities .
United States
*
Atlanta (CNN Center, World Headquarters)
* New York City (parent
Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at 230 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was formed after the spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T, and its merger with D ...
World Headquarters)
* Chicago
* Dallas
* Denver
* Los Angeles
* Miami
* Philadelphia
* San Francisco
* Washington, D.C.
Worldwide
* Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
* Amman, Jordan
* Bangkok, Thailand
* Beijing, China
* Beirut, Lebanon
* Berlin, Germany
* Buenos Aires, Argentina
* Cairo, Egypt
* Dubai, United Arab Emirates
* Havana, Cuba
* Hong Kong, China
* Islamabad, Pakistan
* Istanbul, Turkey
* South Jakarta, Indonesia
* Jerusalem, Israel
* Johannesburg, South Africa
* Kabul, Afghanistan
* Lagos, Nigeria
* Lisbon, Portugal
* London, United Kingdom
* Manila, Philippines
* Mexico City, Mexico
* Moscow, Russia
* Nairobi, Kenya
* New Delhi, India
* Paris, France
* Rome, Italy
* Santiago, Chile
* São Paulo, Brazil
* Seoul, South Korea
* Tokyo, Japan
In parts of the world without a CNN bureau, reports from local affiliate stations will be used to file a story.
Controversies and criticisms
CNN has been involved in various controversies, criticisms and allegations since its inception in 1980. The channel is known for its dramatic live coverage of breaking news, some of which has drawn CNN controversies, criticism as overly Sensationalism, sensationalistic.
CNN claims to be "The Most Trusted Name in News", but its efforts to be Nonpartisanism in the United States, nonpartisan have led to accusations of false balance. A study by three university professors published in the ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (''PNAS USA''), which measured airtime of guests on major news networks between 2010–2021 according to the guests' campaign donations, found CNN to have a liberal bias (a "campaign finance score" of −9.7, where 0 is equal airtime, compared to −14.1 for MSNBC and 49.8 for Fox News), which became more pronounced during the Trump administration. The same study found that some popular primetime news shows on CNN, such as ''Anderson Cooper 360°, Anderson Cooper 360'' or ''CNN Tonight'', are more left-leaning than popular MSNBC shows such as ''The Rachel Maddow Show'' or ''The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, The 11th Hour with Brian Williams''.
In January 2020, CNN settled a multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit from 2019 Lincoln Memorial confrontation, Nick Sandmann, a Covington Catholic High School student involved in an encounter with Omaha people, Omaha tribe elder Nathan Phillips at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C.
When Chris Licht took over the network in 2022, he expressed an intention to have more Republican Party (United States), Republicans on the air and cut down on opinion-related content.
After being fired in December 2021, former host
Chris Cuomo
Christopher Cuomo ( ; born August 9, 1970) is a television journalist anchor at NewsNation, based in New York City. He has previously been the ABC News chief law and justice correspondent and the co-anchor for ABC's '' 20/20'', news anchor for ...
was reported to be seeking $125 million in damages, alleging a "breach" of agreement. In April 2023, host
Don Lemon announced that he had been fired.
Awards and honors
1998: CNN received the Four Freedoms Award for the Freedom of Speech.
2017: CNN received the Monte Carlo TV Festival#Prince Rainier III Special Prize, Prince Rainier III Special Prize at the Monte Carlo TV Festival for the documentary, ''Midway: A Plastic Island'' about sea pollution.
2018: CNN received the Overseas Press Club of America David Kaplan Award for best TV or video spot news reporting from abroad for reporting on the fall of ISIS by Nick Paton Walsh and Arwa Damon.
2018: CNN received the George Polk Award of Long Island University for Foreign Television Reporting for uncovering a hidden modern-day slave auction of African refugees in Libya. Reporting done by Nima Elbagir and Raja Razek.
2018: CNN's Nima Elbagir received the Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation.
2018: CNN won a network-record six News and Documentary Emmy Awards of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage, Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story in a Newscast, Outstanding Live Interview, Outstanding Hard News Feature Story in a Newscast, Outstanding News Special, Outstanding Science, Medical and Environmental Report.
2019: The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, USC Annenberg School awarded CNN with a Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, Walter Cronkite Award for its Parkland Town Hall event.
2020: CNN's Ed Lavandera was awarded a Peabody Award for "The Hidden Workforce: Undocumented in America",
and CNN Films was awarded a Peabody for the documentary "Apollo 11".
2021: CNN won a George Polk Award of Long Island University for Foreign Reporting for their reporting on the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, and later reporting under quarantine in Beijing.
2021: CNN and Clarissa Ward were named finalists for the DuPont-Columbia Award of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism for their "Russia's Secret Influence Campaigns" investigation.
See also
* Broadcasting
* Journalistic objectivity
* List of CNN personnel
* Mass media
* Media bias in the United States
* News media
* News media in the United States
* TeleSUR
* Television studio
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
CNN,
1980 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
Television channels and stations established in 1980
Television networks in the United States
English-language television stations in the United States
24-hour television news channels in the United States
Sirius XM Radio channels
Warner Bros. Discovery networks
Companies based in Atlanta
Podcasting companies
Peabody Award winners
Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award
Webby Award winners