CNN Profiting From User-Generated Content

Written by Steve Donohue

Tuesday, November 4. 2008 at 11:50 AM EST Post a comment

Digg   Del.icio.us   Reddit   Email This

no ratings

• Login to Rate

ad:tech -- NEW YORK -- CNN president Jonathan Klein attributes the network’s success in reaching next-generation viewers to relying on more user-generated content and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

"User-generated content means that CNN has a bureau that is about 300 million strong in the United States and 6 billion strong around the world," Klein told attendees here at the ad:tech confab Tuesday morning.

But how can CNN trust that the information that it obtains from "citizen journalists" is accurate?

"When 50 people start twittering [sending text messages to Twitter] that there was an earthquake, you pretty much know there was an earthquake," Klein said, referring to the July 29 earthquake in Los Angeles, which was reported on Twitter 30 seconds after it struck -- and a full seven minutes before the Associated Press sent out its first news alert on the quake.

CNN screens all videos submitted by viewers on iReport.com. Those that it can verify may be used on CNN.com or run on its cable TV channel. Reports that can’t be verified only run on iReport.com, which contains no CNN branding, Klein said.

"We don't put anything on the air until we track down the person [that submitted the clip]," Klein said, adding that CNN receives about 1,000 videos, photo, and text submissions from viewers every day.

One of the most important reports filed by an amateur videographer for CNN iReport was a video Virginia Tech graduate student Jamal Albarghouti recorded in April 2007 during a shooting on the campus. The video contained sounds of gunshots and images of police officers entering an academic building.

"[Albarghouti] uploaded it to iReport, and we delivered about 2 million streams of that video that day and put it on the air, so tens of millions of people saw it around the world," Klein said.

Klein, who founded TheFeedroom.com before joining CNN shortly after the 2004 presidential election, recalled the changes CNN made at the network to reach next-generation viewers.

The network canceled talking-head debate show Crossfire soon after Klein joined the network, and replaced it with The Situation Room, which features content from multiple TV monitors and Internet feeds.

"The situation room presumes that viewers today can digest and intake multiple streams of information simultaneously," Klein said.

Also Tuesday:

• Klein said CNN packages advertising inventory from its TV networks with inventory from its Websites in sales pitches to advertisers. "We integrate not only in our sales decks but do it in our programming," Klein said, explaining that CNN ties information from the Web into all of its TV shows.
  
  
• When asked to give advice to Web entrepreneurs attempting to monetize long-tail content, Klein said it's key for Web publishers to reach the masses. "If you're not in the Crips or the Bloods you have to join one of them -- any way you can create volume for yourselves. You can have brilliant content but if nobody sees it, you're not going to get a lot of money for it," Klein said.
  
  
• Klein, speaking on the morning of Election Day, said whichever presidential candidate wins the election will have a very short honeymoon. "I think it will be the shortest honeymoon in the history of elections. I don't think it's going to last until the inauguration. [Voters] are going to expect results now," Klein said.