The Story of CNN

Built for Success

by Sara Gilbert

A look at the origins, leaders, growth, and innovations of CNN, the cable news channel that was founded in 1980 and today is one of the worlds leading 24-hour television news networks.

46 pages, Library Binding

First published July 1, 2012

Reviews

[Petty Lisbon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. Although it's (probably?) for middle schoolers, the author had a clear and concise tone that described the technical parts and history of the channel (did you know ABC had a flop cable channel in the 80's?) as well as the personalities in front of it. I enjoyed learning about the reasoning behind their business decisions. I've been keeping up with the Turner and Warner/Discovery merger and for all of the recent changes CNN has gone through, it seems very jarring that they only now want to care about the ratings when this book pretty much made it sound like ratings and revenue were an issue for them since the mid 90's and that Larry King was their best rated show. This book is over a decade old but I would have loved to read 50 more of these books on different channels.

[Shant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, this book is for a juvenile audience, but it is probably the most concise explanation of CNN's first twenty years. I was surprised to learn that the channel was having ratings struggles as soon as the late '90s. As someone who tangentially understands the Turner media arc through the WB and Cartoon Network's history, it was also interesting reading about it through Ted Turner/CNN's side.

(Side Note: I just saw I wrote this book review under a different one, but I don't remember when I read this one, oops.)