CNN: Facebook and not Fox News is our biggest competitor

At the two-day Bloomberg BusinessWeek media summit in New York, CNN president Jon Klein had a Q&A with BusinessWeek editor Josh Tyrangiel. 

Asked about the competition with Fox News, Klein answered: "The competition I'm really afraid of is social nets. We want to be the most trusted source. But on Facebook, people are depending on their friends as news sources.

"I'm more worried about the 500 million or so people on Facebook versus the 2 million on Fox," said the CNN president.

In terms of the cable news wars, though, Klein also pointed out that CNN has just had its most profitable year. Klein rattled off figures that he claimed to show CNN has 10% more viewers than Fox News, though he conceded that Fox News viewers tend to watch longer than CNN viewers do.

Furthermore the CNN president talked about the magic – and often illusory – word "synergy". 

"We're not force feeding, it's not creating foie gras and we're getting better at learning to manage the differences between the cable side and the online side," Klein said. CNN US will be a primary source of its online video, since some stories that might not work on the cable network could get traction online.

He talked about how Time Inc cable news network could use its ties with Time.com to increase its traffic through CNN.com. It also has ties with HBO, which has aired documentaries from host (and Newsweek International Editor) Fareed Zakaria.

"A huge reason we've doubled our profit over the last four years is because we've collaborated with affiliates all over the world."

Looking at the characteristic cable news landscape of the US, Tyrangiel wondered whether a non-partisan outlet, like CNN positions itself to be, can make it in this polarised atmosphere.

Tyrangiel linkened the business of 24-hour cable news to running an umbrella store. "You either have to sell the best umbrellas or you have to convince people it's always raining," he said to Klein.

Klein responded that in his view CNN can attract those who want straight news. "The other guys can have the fringes."