HLN’s next step, post-trial
JEREMY HOBSON: If you’ve been watching CNN’s HLN network recently it’s been a whole lot of this:
HLN: The Casey Anthony Trial: Get full coverage everyday on HLN.
The Casey Anthony trial has been attracting unprecedented viewership to the channel. But now that the case is coming to a close, what will HLN do?
Sally Herships has that story.
Sally Herships: “If it bleeds, it leads” is cliche, but it’s working for HLN. When the network broadcast the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial yesterday, it drew 2.5 million viewers.
Tom Umstead: The question now will be how do you keep those viewers there?
Tom Umstead is programming editor at Multichannel News.
Umstead: With the ebb and flow of the news comes the ebb and flow, unfortunately, of the viewers.
Umstead says HLN used the murder case to show viewers it can cover trials much more thoroughly than other networks, but now there’s not much more to cover.
Roy Gutterman: I really don’t see how they’re going to be able to hold on to this.
Syracuse professor Roy Gutterman has been following the Anthony case. He says networks that devote gavel-to-gavel coverage of criminal trials are at the whim of the news cycle. HLN will no doubt now lose viewers and maybe advertisers too.
Gutterman: I think that’s the risk of advertising on a news network. You can’t always have news happen.
So, Gutterman says, HLN should scour court dockets for the next big case.
I’m Sally Herships for Marketplace.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
