Headline News
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- Headline News can also refer to the song by "Weird Al" Yankovic.
| Headline News | |
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| Type | Cable News Television Network |
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| Branding | Headline News |
| Country |  United States |
| Availability | United States, Canada, Latin America, The Caribbean. Asia, Australia (some Hotels only), Radio, and many public locations |
| Founder | Ted Turner |
| Slogan | "Your Need To Know Network" |
| Owner | Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (a Time Warner company) |
| Key people | Kenneth Jautz |
| Launch date | January 1, 1982 |
| Website | cnn.com/HLN |
Headline News is a spin-off network from the original Cable News Network (CNN) television news network in the United States and Canada.
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[edit] History
Headline News began broadcasting on January 1, 1982, as "CNN2," but the name was changed to CNN Headline News in 1983. The CNN part has been used intermittently throughout the years, but became an official part of the channel's name by the late 1990s (it was dropped in 2007, shortly before debuting revamped graphics). The network's first broadcast aired at Midnight Eastern Standard Time on January 1, 1982. The co-anchors were Chuck Roberts and Denise LeClair and the broadcast was simultaneously broadast on Superstation WTBS. The TV version of Headline News also was simulcast as CNN Radio.
"Headlines", as it is known to employees, has always been somewhat of a stepchild at CNN: the unvarying rigidity of the news cycle was contrasted with the unpredictable, live nature of the parent network. It has been remarkably stable, too: Chuck Roberts, who anchored the first newscast in 1982, is still anchoring.
The original Headline News format, which lasted until 2001, allowed the viewer to tune in at any time of the day and, in just 30 minutes, receive the most popular national and international stories, and feature reports. The format, known as the Headline News Wheel, was created by founding CNN Senior Producer Ted Kavanau. When Kavanau went to Washington,DC to start CNN's first investigative unit (Special Assignments), Headline News Senior Producer, Paul Amos, took over responsibility for the program. He later became a Senior Exective V.P. for CNN. Among the features that were specific to Headlines News were "Dollars and Sense" personal finance reports at 15 and 45 minutes past each hour, Headline Sports at 21 and 51 minutes and lifestyle reports at 24 and 54 minutes past each hour. Another regular feature was the "Hollywood Minute" which was often fitted in after the Headline Sports segment. In addition, later in the 1990s, a stock-price crawler weekdays between 9:30am and 5:30pm (ET), listing the latest stock market quotes and a sport score ticker during weekend and evening hours. Headline News Local Edition afforded cable operators with slots throughout the day to insert five minutes of local news into the Headline News format. This usually replaced the lifestyle segment at 24 and 54 minutes past the hour.
In the late 1990s, Headline News pioneered using a digital video jukebox to recycle segments of one newscast seamlessly into another newscast. During that period, Headline News laid off part of its staff, including such stalwart anchors as Lyn Vaughn, David Goodnow and Bob Losure, all of whom had been with Headline News for over 10 years. David Goodnow's tenure went back to the days of CNN2. Bob Losure quit before he was pushed.
In the early 2000s, CNN Headline News became famous for its distinct "screen," in which the news anchor (or news footage) appears in a sort of visual "window" surrounded by constantly changing text, such as breaking news, sports scores, stock market reports, and weather updates. This new screen layout premiered on Headline News on August 6, 2001.
On September 11th 2001 during the attacks in New York City and Washington D.C., Headline News began to air older sister channel CNN for the days during and after the attack.
In 2003, Time Warner revamped CNN Headline News, as part of its response to competition from Fox News and MSNBC. Shows began to feature two anchors, and a more flexible format including live reports.
In late 2004, the network began to become available on mainly subscription television platforms in Latin America, The Caribbean and Asia. In Latin America and the Caribbean is available with Turner Classic Movies. In Australia it is available in some Hotels via TV Oceania.
After much scrutiny and lampooning, such as USA Today calling the screen a "jumbled mess", the amount of on-screen information was dramatically scaled back in 2005. Stocks and sports scores are now seen in a more narrow, yellowish colored box with the CNN Headline News title and the current time to the left. Below the box is CNN's more generic news scrollbar.
On February 21, 2005, the network departed from its roots in a rigid schedule of news updates every half-hour by offering "Headline Prime": longer, personality-based shows in the evening. Initial shows were an hour of entertainment news, Showbiz Tonight with A. J. Hammer (and originally Karyn Bryant) at 7 ET, an hour of legal news and discussion, named after host Nancy Grace at 8 ET, and Prime News with Erica Hill, a program covering national news hosted by Erica Hill (and originally Mike Galanos). This eliminated the main difference between CNN Headline News and CNN during primetime, which had always broadcast a variety of news-related programs, such as documentaries and personality-based shows like Larry King Live. In May 2006, Headline News launched a new prime time show hosted by radio talk show host Glenn Beck (weekly featuring Brian Sack, the public viewer.)
At other times of the day, the channel still features 30-minute news programs. Every half-hour viewers get the latest updates on top stories (headlines), financial news, national weather reports, sports, and entertainment news.
As of 2006, Headline News no longer airs its programming entirely live, and therefore uses its digital video jukebox system to shuffle certain segments of the newscast, unless, of course, important news breaks. This system is especially true on the weekends. In fact, if one watches Headline News closely in a given weekend, one may find the same newscast that originally aired in the morning repeated long into the night (this is one reason why other networks as MSNBC and Fox News Channel have aired ads attacking Headline News for its repetition). In addition, Headline Prime has also been expanded to the weekends with the same programmes occupying the same timeslots as in the weekdays where content was recorded from the most recent weekday broadcasts.
The network is quite popular with people who may not have time for lengthy news reports. TVs playing CNN Headline News can often be found in airports, bars, and other places where there is a high demand for "get to the point" news.
Since its inception in 1982, Headline News has been syndicated to network television affiliates in the United States. Audio of the channel has also been simulcast on AM radio stations across the country, XM Satellite Radio channel 123, and Sirius Satellite Radio channel 133. Until the early 1990s, much of Headline News' output was simulcast on CNN International.
In December 2006, Headline News' set was redesigned, along with new music and a new compressed ticker at the bottom of the screen. Other minor graphics changes were implemented during winter 2006 and into January 2007. Slight changes were made to the bottom of the screen as well.
[edit] Ratings and Revenues
In 2005 with a revamp of the network's primetime schedule, the network went past MSNBC in 2005 to take the number 3 slot [1]. HLN's Primetime programming block of Nancy Grace, Glenn Beck and a repeat of Nancy Grace regularly beats MSNBC's Primetime lineup in terms of total viewers (viewers ages 2+). [2]
Thanks in part to the uptick in ratings from the late 90's/early '00's. the network now brings in over $150 million in revenues for its parent Time Warner. Although that is close to what MSNBC earns for NBC Universal and General Electric (at $200 million), it pales in comparison to what the mother network, CNN U.S. rakes in ($800 million). [3]
[edit] Programming
Headline News presents a small variety of programming, providing rolling news coverage from the early morning to early primetime, followed by subject-oriented programming during primetime hours.
[edit] Current titled programs
- Robin & Company, a weekday morning news show, anchored by Robin Meade
- Prime News with Erica Hill, an evening news program, hosted by Erica Hill
- Glenn Beck, a nightly talk show, hosted by Glenn Beck.
- Nancy Grace, legal news/opinion program, hosted by Nancy Grace.
- Showbiz Tonight, an hour-long entertainment news show, anchored by A.J. Hammer.
- Open House, a show covering a broad range of home and real estate issues, hosted by Gerri Willis.
- CNN Student News, a daily contribution to the Cable in the Classroom educational initiative, anchored by Shannon Cook
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- Rolling news hours throughout each day are anchored by Mike Galanos, Christi Paul, Linda Stouffer, Chuck Roberts, Erica Hill, Susan Hendricks, Renay San Miguel, and Thomas Roberts
[edit] Anchors and Reporters (Past and Present)
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[edit] Previous logos
 CNN2 logo from 1982 to 1983 |
 Headline News logo (c. 1987) |
 Headline News logo (c. 1991 to 1992) |
 Headline News logo - 1992 to 1997 |
 Headline News logo - used in 1994 in tandem with preceding logo |
 CNN Headline News logo - 1997 to 2001 |
 CNN Headline News logo - 2001 to January 2007 |
 Headline News - January 2007 to present |
[edit] See Also
[edit] External links
- Headline News – official website
- "Headline News over the years" British site with video clips, logos and history of the network
- "Headline News nostalgia Yahoo group" Group covering HLN in the 1980s and 1990s
