7. CNN News Wire Plans: 2008 in Review

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CNN struck out in a bold new direction with its proposal to launch a news wire service for cash-strapped newspapers.

Aimed at providing a cheaper alternative to services offered by such newsgathering giants as the Associated Press, CNN’s decision could also represent a turning point for participatory journalism, in which it has already made a considerable investment.

The “newspaper summit” that CNN held in December appeared to offer few formal details about the wire service. Newspaper editors who took part said that for CNN to succeed it would need to offer national, international and regional reporting, breaking news and photo services, as well as the video it already provides. 

iReport

CNN already has almost 4,000 journalists and a network of affiliates who could produce content for the wire service. But perhaps in keeping with its Gulf War heritage of being at the scene of the action when rivals are not, the company has also built a broad network of contributors in the shape of its iReport initiative, which allows anyone to instantly submit content from anywhere in the world.

In early 2008 CNN built a repository for all this material in the iReport.com website, which staff scour for reports, photos and videos suitable for use on its TV channels, its main website, and other CNN platforms. As CNN already has a mechanism to collect content from iReport, it could also sell some of this contributor-generated material at a high margin on its news wire.

We’ll be watching with interest for more details of CNN’s plans in the New Year.

- Sticking with CNN, while he didn’t make the list, we’d like to give an honorable mention to network anchor Rick Sanchez. He started using Twitter to gather news during his coverage of Hurricane Gustav, showing conversations about the storm on-screen.

CNN liked it so much it decided to launch a daily show around it – an “audience-driven, interactive hour of the day’s news and smart conversation”. Importantly, this decision has prompted other media companies to start using Twitter to interact with audiences and gather information.