2005 Annual Report - Cable TV Newsroom Investment

In 2004, the cable channels' news investment reached the highest level yet seen, mainly because Fox News and MSNBC increased their spending; CNN's spending declined. Most of this extra expenditure was apparently devoted to upgrading facilities and providing day-in, day-out coverage of the two major stories of 2004 -- the election and the Iraq war -- rather than a sign of increased commitment to covering a broader news agenda.

In 2004, Kagan Research estimates, Fox and MSNBC increased their programming expenses by 20% and 7.5%, respectively, while CNN spent 9% less.

In terms of spending on people, the order between the three cable news channels remains unchanged. CNN leads the way with the largest newsgathering operation, including eleven domestic bureaus and twenty-eight international bureaus, and roughly 4,000 employees. Fox News has eleven domestic bureaus and six overseas.¹ A 2003 New Yorker article by Ken Auletta put its staff at 1,250, though this may have grown in 2004 with election coverage.² MSNBC alone has upwards of 500 employees; the entire NBC News division includes sixteen bureaus (six domestic and ten overseas).

Cable News Programming Costs

1997 to 2004

Design Your Own Chart

Source: Kagan Research unpublished data, www.kagan.com

* CNN figures include Headline News

The data do not distinguish between spending on personnel and spending on infrastructure -- studios, equipment, and so on -- but news reports suggest that the channels have concentrated on infrastructure and technology. CNN opened a new set of studios in the new Time Warner headquarters building in New York, bringing together its entire New York staff of 600 in one place.³ Fox News, meanwhile, totally rebuilt its New York studios.⁴

An unanticipated amount of money has gone to covering events in Iraq. A May 2004 report estimated, based on interviews with network personnel, that each news outlet had spent about $6 million covering Iraq in the year following the fall of Baghdad, including costs like extra satellite time and security personnel.⁵

Another major outlay in 2004 was for election coverage. The campaign required the cable channels to trek after the Democratic primary candidates in Iowa and New Hampshire early in the winter, and later on to provide on-scene coverage of the political conventions in Boston and New York and, finally, Election Day coverage from the country's "swing states."

There are signs, at CNN at least, that attention is turning to staffing. When it decided to shut down CNNfn it did not simply dismiss that network's 110 staff members. Two shows were moved to the main CNN network, accounting for half of CNNfn's employees, and at the same time, CNN announced plans to hire 100 employees at Headline News, the possible launch pad for new CNN shows.⁶