ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 21, 1997 TAG: 9702210023
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: DAVID BAUDER AP TELEVISION WRITER
Everywhere you turn at the CNN Center, there's a risk of running into a contractor.
New offices are constantly being created to make room for the network's burgeoning empire - CNN Interactive, the financial network CNNfn and the CNN-SI sports channel. There's even staff to produce news reports to flash on pagers and for televisions in airports.
It's a good thing, too, because these aren't easy times for the Cable News Network itself, which started the whole franchise 17 years ago.
Increased competition from MSNBC, the Fox News Channel and ever-expanding local newscasts have combined with a relatively slow news period. The result? Sagging ratings and questions about whether CNN can thrive in times of noncrisis.
``That's a great concern to me,'' said Ed Turner, executive vice president of CNN. ``What do you do when the earth isn't on fire?''
CNN's reputation as a go-to network when there's a big news story was confirmed the night President Clinton's State of the Union address conflicted with the verdict in O.J. Simpson's civil trial. Its ratings were double what they are on a normal night.
But unfortunately for CNN, these nights come far too infrequently.
Nielsen Media Research has given the network some ugly numbers lately. The average number of homes that tuned in to CNN, for instance, dropped from 572,000 in 1995 to 327,000 in 1996, Nielsen said. Prime-time ratings sank 33 percent in 1996.
In contrast to 1992, when CNN took advantage of Larry King's new status as the favorite interviewer of presidential candidates, the network suffered last year from the public's lack of interest in the Clinton-Dole campaign. International stories didn't pick up the slack either.
CNN's ratings also may have been artificially high in 1995 because of O.J. Simpson's criminal trial, said Larry Gerbrandt, a media analyst with Paul Kagan Associates.
To try to tweak this year's ratings, the network is making some changes.
``Burden of Proof,'' the midday program with Roger Cossack and Greta Van Susteren that was an outgrowth of the Simpson trial, has joined the glut of prime-time legal shows. It will be repeated at 8:30 p.m. on weekdays and will go live when the stories are compelling.
Two of CNN's up-and-coming anchors, Joie Chen and Leon Harris, will be teamed to host the 10 p.m. news hour.
And on March 2, CNN will debut ``Impact,'' a weekly newsmagazine that is a collaboration between journalists from CNN and its new corporate partner, Time magazine.
There also have been trade publication stories saying CNN is talking with other networks' news executives about coming in and shaking things up.
Improving ratings while maintaining CNN's reputation as a hard-news source is a delicate job. It can hype news stores - All O.J! All the time! - but runs the risk of turning off the serious news junkies that are CNN's bedrock viewers, Turner noted.
A greater emphasis on talk shows could move CNN away from what it does best and blur the distinctions between it and newer rivals MSNBC and Fox.
``If you're going to be an all-news network, you better pretty much be an all-news network,'' Turner said. ``We are limited in what we can do.''
Given the main network's ratings woes, it's natural to wonder whether CNN is stretching itself too thin.
Gerbrandt doesn't think so. He believes the diversification is wise, and there are some signs CNN is beginning to see how integration can work. When the Clinton speech and Simpson verdict conflicted this month, CNN told viewers it could see uninterrupted Simpson coverage on CNN Headline News. The result was that offshoot's highest one-night ratings ever.
Some of CNN's former viewers also may be on computers and dialing up the network's Web site, Gerbrandt said.
``They have established a brand name there,'' he said. ``When you look at their erosion, you have to give them back some of their viewers who may be watching CNN on line.''
The network also may be strengthened by its ties to Time Warner's stable of magazines, with CNN-SI the most obvious example. ``Impact'' will be the test case for CNN's news side; already, Turner said, CNN reporters have worked with Time employees for a report on Simpson's finances.
``That gives us a great advantage,'' he said. ``So far, it has been very pleasant.''
LENGTH: Medium: 83 linesby CNB