CNN news channel is famous for its non-partisan view on world news. It has 45 bureaus around the world-more than its rivals, Fox News and MSNBC combined-and about 4000 employees. Whenever there is a terrorist attack, flood or war, CNN got a lift. However, when the news is about words rather than action CNN struggles. It struggles to attract viewers due to its objectivity. Viewers want news to report in the way that they wanted such as reporting only good news about the party they support, and negatively reporting the rival parties.

This raised a good question on the business ethics of news channels. Does news channel has to be biased over hot debated political issues in order to attract viewers and advertisers? Ideally, news channel should report news to the viewers with unbiased analyze, provide an objective insight into world issues. However it seems that the more biased the view the news channel provides, the more viewers it will attract and more profit margins it will gain. MSNBC has 46% profit margin and Fox has 55%, whereas CNN only has 37% profit margin.

Although CNN is struggling with its unbiased stand, its objectivity also brings benefits for the company. CNN is still heaven for advertises that do not want to associate themselves with a political agenda. It also has most of the young and racially diverse audiences compare to Fox’s, which is 95% white. With the new Boss starting from next year, CNN might commissioning more global reporting than national politics to increase its revenues.

Sources: The Economist September 22nd – 28th, Business Section, “Unbiased and Unloved”