cable news

The second quarter of 2013 cemented the recent ratings trends in cable news, with CNN rising and MSNBC falling, while Fox News continued its overall dominance.

But within those quarterly reports was the news that in June Fox News scored its lowest ratings since August 2001 among the viewers news advertisers most want to reach, the 25-to-54 age group. The network may be trying to address this issue with its decision to elevate one of its rising stars, Megyn Kelly, to a prime-time slot as soon as she returns from a planned maternity leave in the next few months. Fox made that expected promotion official on Tuesday.

Fox did not announce a specific show for Ms. Kelly or whose place she would be taking in the network’s prime-time lineup. However, speculation has centered on Greta Van Susteren, the 10 p.m. anchor. Ms. Van Susteren recently signed an extension of her Fox contract but her future role is not certain at this point.

Her husband, John Coale, said in an interview with The Times in May that she would be willing to move to an earlier hour. Several Web sites, including Mediaite, reported this week that Ms. Van Susteren had held talks with CNN, seeking a job at that network. A CNN executive confirmed Tuesday that those talks had taken place.

Fox News also announced on Tuesday that it had extended the contracts of all its evening and prime-time anchors: Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Bret Baier and Shepard Smith.

All those men continued to pile up huge advantages over their competitors in terms of total viewers in the second quarter, as did Fox News, which was up 12 percent in total day ratings and 3 percent in the Monday through Friday prime-time ratings.

But Fox News did show declines among viewers between 25 and 54, the group that accounts for the bulk of ad revenue for news networks. For the quarter, Fox was down 6 percent in total day ratings in that category and 12 percent in the prime-time hours.

The second quarter proved a boon to CNN, which capitalized on a spate of big news during the last three months — including the Boston Marathon bombings — to post sizable ratings increases across the board, even as MSNBC was suffering significant losses. CNN finished ahead of MSNBC for a full quarter in prime time in both total viewers and in the 25-54 group for the first time since 2009.

In total day numbers, CNN was up 49 percent in total viewers, to 475,000. That was ahead of MSNBC’s 360,000 (down 9 percent), though nowhere near Fox News, which averaged 1.2 million. However, in that advertiser-preferred group, CNN came much closer to the perennial leader, Fox News, with 161,000 viewers to Fox’s 238,000.

In the Monday-Friday prime-time competition, Fox News held a similar yawning advantage in total viewers with 2.2 million (up 3 percent) to CNN’s 733,000; CNN’s total represents a 56 percent increase from the previous year (when the network was setting records for low ratings). CNN easily topped MSNBC, which dropped to 660,000, down 19 percent.

Again, the prime-time gap between Fox News and CNN was much narrower in the 25-54 category — just 136,000 — as opposed to almost 1.5 million among total viewers. Fox News averaged 386,000 for the quarter in that advertiser-preferred group, down 12 percent, to CNN’s 250,000, up 76 percent. MSNBC dropped 14 percent to 196,000.

MSNBC’s biggest name, Rachel Maddow, suffered through her worst quarter among total viewers since coming on the air in 2008.

The last month of the quarter, June, seemed to be pointing to a slowdown in news, which affected all the networks. With no headline-grabbing events to drive the ratings, MSNBC regained second place over CNN for the month. Many of the individual news programs showed stark falloffs from last June, which was an intense month for political coverage in a presidential election year.

In June, Ms. Maddow, for example, was down 20 percent from a year ago in the 25-54 audience, to her worst performance ever; Mr. Hannity’s decline was even sharper, down 25 percent, reaching his lowest ratings in that category since August 2001. With an average prime-time audience in the 25-54 category of 317,000, Fox had reached its lowest monthly total since August 2001.

On CNN, Piers Morgan was about where he was a year ago, down 6 percent. That was the second-worst monthly performance for his show.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/03/business/media/megyn-kelly-to-get-prime-time-slot-on-fox-news.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Fred Lee/ABC Jake Tapper in November on the set of ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

CNN on Thursday said it had hired Jake Tapper, the senior White House correspondent for ABC News, amid talk of new programming for the cable news channel.

Mr. Tapper, widely seen as one of the most aggressive reporters in the nation’s capital, will anchor an afternoon program for the channel and will be its chief Washington correspondent. The new program will start sometime next year.

Mr. Tapper’s talks with CNN predated the hiring of Jeff Zucker to be president of CNN Worldwide. But Mr. Zucker, who will start at CNN in January, was instrumental in getting the deal done, a spokeswoman for the channel said.

Mr. Tapper alluded to the prospect of working with Mr. Zucker in a statement on Thursday. “With CNN’s impeccable reporting during the elections and the exciting changes in the works for the network, this is a perfect time to join the CNN team,” he said.

CNN did not specify what time slot Mr. Tapper would be given. But the channel is expected to shrink the three-hour “Situation Room” back to two hours, possibly to 5 and 6 p.m. Eastern time, making room for Mr. Tapper’s program at 4 p.m.

Mr. Tapper has worked for CNN once before; he was a co-host of “Take 5,” a weekend panel program on CNN, in 2001.

Mr. Tapper has worked at ABC News since 2003, and has been stationed at the White House full time since the presidential election in 2008. His interest in hosting the network’s Sunday morning public affairs program “This Week” has been an open secret in Washington for some time now. When George Stephanopoulos was renamed the host of the program (after a stint by Christiane Amanpour) in 2012, there was speculation that Mr. Tapper would look elsewhere. Last week, ABC confirmed that Mr. Stephanopoulos would remain the host of “This Week” in the new year.

In a memo about the changes on Thursday, Ben Sherwood, the president of ABC News, praised Mr. Tapper for building “a reputation as one of the most prolific and multitalented journalists on the beat, scoring scoop after scoop.” He said that Jonathan Karl would succeed Mr. Tapper at the White House. Mr. Karl is currently the senior political correspondent for the news division.

Additionally, the foreign affairs reporter Martha Raddatz, who gained attention in the fall for moderating a vice-presidential debate, will have the title of global foreign affairs correspondent. Ms. Raddatz will also be the primary substitute for Mr. Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” replacing Mr. Tapper in that role, ABC said.

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/jake-tapper-leaves-abc-news-for-cnn/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Megyn Kelly to Get Prime-Time Slot on Fox News

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