CNN's hot August might
Headline News passes MSNBC in key demo race
While the net remains No. 3 in total auds in the month's tally, Headline News averaged 111,000 viewers in primetime 18-49 vs. the Microsoft-NBC joint venture's 100,000. In total-day ratings, Headline News averaged 100,000 vs. MSNBC's 79,000.
Fox News remains No. 1 in viewership, with CNN in second place.
The shift in news-viewing demographics is significant because the cabler has touted its favorable demos as a selling point to advertisers.
"We've been able to spread information to a wider and younger demographic," said Headline News exec VP Rolando Santos. "People underestimate the need from younger people for news."
But MSNBC veepee and editor-in-chief Jerry Nachman said it's premature to draw conclusions about the perf of the revamped net during the slow summer season, especially a mere six weeks after the cabler's relaunch.
Indeed, even Fox News, launched in 1996, took several years to take first spot in the cable derby. (Unlike MSNBC, however, the News Corp. cabler did not have a network news division's resources backing it.) Cable king Bill O'Reilly, who was with Fox News when it launched in 1996, came to prominence during the Monica Lewinsky affair, when his household ratings jumped by 429% from January 1998 to January 1999.
"The O'Reilly Factor," which runs at 8 p.m., is now the most-watched news show on cable.
In the latest 8 p.m. race between CNN's "Connie Chung Hour" and MSNBC's "Donahue," Chung has widened her lead in total viewers for the month, with 723,000 vs. Donahue's 379,000. Fox News' "O'Reilly Factor" maintains its commanding lead in auds, averaging nearly 1.8 million viewers.
