"CNN Drops to Last Place Among Cable News Networks"--that's the headline from Bill Carter in The New York Times.
And that's last as in, behind even Headline News. So fourth place.
And Jeff Bercovici, over at Daily Finance, adds some good stuff. Jeff quotes a CNN spokeswoman:
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.
To which Jeff adds, in his own voice:
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.
But let's go further: What CNN’s spokesperson gave Jeff is BS because CNN, starting with Jon Klein, has always maintained that the 25-54 is the most important, and have stressed prime in the past. But that was when they were doing better--they have changed their tune since they’re clearly sinking now). As Inside Cable News has helpfully pointed out.
