CNN has started June with new guidelines designed to reduce the number of times the ‘breaking news’ banner appears on its channel.
CNN’s new boss Chris Licht wants to address overuse of ‘breaking news’, agreeing with complaints that it overuses the banner. An update to the CNN stylebook provides editors with guidance on when to use the breaking news strap.
It comes as questions are raised across the industry as to the effectiveness of using breaking news banners on screen. Most news channels invariably label items as ‘breaking news’ for hours after an event has occurred.
CNN bosses only want the breaking news banner appearing on screen when something big is actually occurring.
CNN is now part of the Warner Bros Discovery media empire. Under its new CEO David Zaslav, senior management have ordered changes at CNN. They want CNN to broadcast less progressive commentary and more actual news, according to a report by Axios. CNN’s schedule has in recent years become dominated by discussion programmes about US news. This has led to fewer world news programmes on CNN International.
In the UK, Warner Bros Discovery is a shareholder in All Perspectives Limited, the parent company of GB News.