CNN says Facebook is biggest rival

Thu Mar 11 2010, 16:32 PM

CNN claims its biggest challenge comes not from rival TV news stations but from social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Speaking at the 2010 Media Summit in New York, CNN's US president Jonathan Klein said that although rival Fox is currently beating CNN in the rankings, competition is greatest from online services not tracked by Nielsen's ratings.

"I'm more worried about the 500m people on Facebook versus the 2m on Fox," says Klein. "The people you're friends with on Facebook or the people you follow on Twitter are trusted sources of information. Well we want to be the most trusted name in news. That's a challenge and we have to rise to that challenge."

CNN was once the most-watched cable news network in the US, but has lost ground in the TV ratings battle over the past few years and currently averages just 687,000 primetime viewers. In comparison, Fox News attracts 2.3m primetime viewers and MSNBC reaches 800,000. However, Klein says those ratings don't paint an accurate picture of his network's strengths or take account of its online presence.

"We're number one by a mile in digital news, we're in a lot of places and I think that's the model that can be very successful for us," he says. "Online is a big growth area for us."

The news landscape is shifting rapidly, with increased competition from the internet changing the ways consumers access content. Social networks are playing a growing role as a means of finding news online. Data from Hitwise shows that Facebook is the fourth-biggest source of US traffic to news sites, responsible for 3.5% of traffic behind only Google, MSN and Yahoo!. More than half of people who use social networks and access news online say they prefer to get news items from people they follow.

Analysts believe social networks are already having a huge impact on the media industry, redefining what news is. "In Facebook's new world order, it is the platform that enables news to be distributed, created, shared and commented on," eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson recently told StrategyEye. "The impact on the media industry is enormous. Although Facebook has long billed itself as a communications utility, it is quickly also becoming a media outlet."