Online Content, A Day in the Life - Annual Report 2006

The Web site of cable news’s oldest channel has become one of the most popular sites on the Web, consistently among the top three (with Yahoo and MSNBC). What people find there is a site whose top stories on May 11 stood out by nearly all our measures — the level of original content, updating, newness of content, and use of the multimedia nature of the Web. Yet beyond those lead items, much like cable news on television, there is less underneath. The rest of the site relies on AP wire copy for most of its news and amounts to less than people can get in various other places.

CNN.com falls squarely in the camp of old media, making choices for people about what news is most important, though it does offer a button for “Most Popular” stories. Still, if the wire copy and original material are added together, CNN.com offers a diet of news very similar to what viewers could find on the cable channel throughout the day.

The page on May 11 (and its setup had not been changed as of early 2006) featured a lead story, which users were drawn to by a major photo. At 9 a.m., it was the news that “Six bombs kill 54 in Iraq,” the same lead as on many of the sites studied. (Incidentally, CBS.com at 9 a.m. had the number at 61, NYTimes.com at “more than 60,” Reuters “at least 70,” and AFP “at least 64”). This top story also had links to two separate video pieces — on the bombing and the general fighting in Iraq — plus a story about Senate funding for the war and a special report, “Iraq: Transition of Power.”

After the morning, though, the top spot would be dominated by the plane scare — at 1 p.m., 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. The story was updated throughout the day and there were fresh pictures and links, but like its cable TV parent, CNN’s Web site found the wayward Cessna’s journey into restricted airspace the day’s big story.

To the left of that lead, CNN’s site offered seven more headlines under its “More News” heading. And there was a lot of crime reporting on this day — at 9 a.m. the Illinois slaying, another multiple homicide, in California , the Jackson trial and the sentencing of a “cannibal-inspired killer” all made the list. But there was also substantial use of links and multimedia. Four of the seven stories featured video links, and there was yet another special report, this one on Michael Jackson.

CNN.com Lead Stories

That section was followed by yet more multimedia, the latest updates from CNN Radio and video on Britain ’s Prince Harry joining the military. Then came a link to the homepage of the news channel’s No. 1 show, Larry King, followed by a stock market report and stock quote check.

Below that came the rest of the news menu broken down into topics — U.S., World, Technology, Entertainment, Politics, Law, Health, Science and Space, Travel, Education, Sports, Business — each offering a couple of headline stories, 24 in all. Yet there CNN’s effort at original work had stopped. Those 24 stories were all wire copy, mainly AP.

Thus this is really two sites — the eight or so main stories for which CNN has produced packages and text stories through the day, including a couple of background non-breaking news reports, and the larger menu of news from the AP.

During the day, CNN paid fairly close attention to those stories that it produced itself. Nearly half, 45%, of those would turn over by 9 p.m., and another 40% would be updated in some manner. Unlike the aggregators’ computerized updates, these were the work of CNN correspondents, and also often linked to the latest TV reports as well as other video or audio components.

Three quarters of stories through the day included video and three quarters photo galleries. Three quarters of them would also allow users to customize or manipulate data. One in every five (20%) included audio links, and half included graphics and maps. By 9 p.m., for instance, the top story on the plane scare in Washington also included seven different links to sidebars, photo galleries, or video — everything from a timeline (“the key 47 minutes”) to a package on “How the decision to shoot down a plane is made.”

Yet the multimedia emphasis, updating and interactivity was again limited to the top eight stories. In the larger section below that makes up the bulk CNN’s homepage, only four of the 24 wire stories would be replaced by newer material through the day. And there was little in the way of multimedia or other links.

As for news agenda, excluding the AP, the Web site has something of a balance that the news channel on TV does not. Online, the plane-scare story was the lead, but it didn’t dominate the space on CNN’s Web page the way it did the time on TV. Users could sample as much or as little of the plane issue as they wanted.

Still, compared with Yahoo, the New York Times or Google, CNN’s popular page is offering users a much more limited menu of news.