LOW RATINGS AT CNN? NO MATTER. IT’S PROFITS STILL RISE

Despite numerous reports about its falling ratings in primetime, CNN’s profits rose to a historical high in 2009, and the cable news network is projecting profits for 2010 to rise even higher. As the National Journal reported on Saturday, CNN earns only about 10 percent of its revenue from domestic primetime programs, and it continues to draw more individual viewers than its competitors. In April the number of viewers came to 90.2 million versus 82.3 million for Fox News and 74.8 million for MSNBC. CNN.com is also the No. 1 news website with 38.2 million users monthly, generating 1.7 billion average monthly page views. And CNN Digital, with 14.8 million unique visitors, beats every other mobile site. Greg D’Alba, COO for CNN ad sales, told National Journal that 80 percent of the ad deals CNN makes involve more than one platform. Finally, while many large news organizations are cutting staff, CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson told the Journal, “CNN Worldwide ended the year 2009 with more employees than it started with — as we had the year before.”