CNN Headline News updates itself

CNN2 began as less a network than a war plan. The enemy, as Ted Turner saw it, was a new 24-hour headline service started by ABC and Westinghouse to compete with Turner's year-old Cable News Network. So on Jan. 1, 1982, Turner started his own headline serviceand made sure it came out fighting. He picked Ted Kavanau, a leathery news honcho from the old school, to run CNN2. Under Kavanau's command the news marched out at a fearsome pace: story after story, video clip after clip. Viewers would hear the voice of CNN2 anchor Chuck Roberts, a graduate of Southwest High School who once read the news at WHB-AM. But they might not see much of him. The control room was too busy showing footage to cut to an anchor shot. CNN2 lost money - but so did the ABC-Westinghouse channel, so much money that the plug was pulled on it in 1983. After that, CNN2 renamed itself CNN Headline News and, as cable TV took off, it enjoyed 15 years of peace and prosperity. Lately, though, a new enemy has begun to emerge. But according to Headline News president Bob Furnad, it's not another news channel. It's the clicker. "MSNBC and Fox News, they're battling it out with each other," Furnad said in a conference call last week. "That's not my competition. My competition is everything that's on cable and direct broadcast." Headline News saw its ratings slide 2 percent in the past year, and Furnad thought the network could do more to attract younger channel-surfing viewers. So last year he ordered an on-air makeover for Headline News, its first since 1988. The new look goes live at 5 p.m. today. The makeover is aimed at what Furnad calls "news optimizers" - people who click past the channel, stop when they see stories of interest to them and then move on. The goal is to get these viewers to spend more time on Headline News by teasing upcoming stories and pumping fresh content onto the channel throughout the day. Over the years the Headline News format and on-screen look have incorporated such new elements as financial news, "factoids" and a stock ticker that eventually became a "super ticker" with news and sports briefs as well. But it was thought that a bold new visual look was needed to bring Headline News up-to-date - and it had to be more than the ubiquitous laptop at the anchor's right elbow. Here is what viewers will see: A revamped newsroom: CNN spent nine months constructing a new studio for Headline News that, according to one executive who has toured the facility, contains "more monitors than you've ever seen in your life." Busier screens: Headline News will add more on-screen elements while cleaning up the overall look. The next two stories to be read will be listed, and the background will be color-coded for each of the four day shifts: yellow, for instance, for the 5 to 11 a.m. "First Watch." More stories: In the past Headline News would accept CNN reports of up to two minutes. That length has been cut to no more than 75 seconds. And taped reports that air in one day shift will not be allowed to air in any other day shift, encouraging viewers to tune in often. Many TV news consultants say newscasts should "flow," with similar stories grouped together. But, Furnad said, "We're going to go anti-flow. Instead of three international stories, three medical stories, three political stories, we're going to go international, medical, political," and then repeat. The variety, he believes, will pique channel surfers' interest. The makeover will be accompanied by a multimillion-dollar promotional campaign aimed at the channel's target audience of adults ages 25-54. (The median age of Headline News viewers is 52, the youngest of any national news provider.) Of course, not everything at Headline News will change. The network's two most visible anchors will remain in their posts: Roberts, who was there when CNN2 signed on, and Lynne Russell, the longtime prime-time anchor, who joined in 1983. To reach Aaron Barnhart, television writer, call (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com