00:03Welcome to the Media Leaders Special in Cannes.
00:07We are here by the pool at the M Gallery Hotel for the whole week
00:12and we are meeting every personality in the market.
00:16Today I'm with James Hunt from CNN.
00:19Hello, welcome James.
00:20Thank you, thank you for having me.
00:22First question, you're almost 50 years old.
00:25It's quite young, you're kind of born with the platforms
00:30and every new habits that consumers have.
00:37How do you work with that today?
00:41Well, first of all, thank you for having me again.
00:43It's great to be here.
00:45Well, as you said, we're almost 46 years old now
00:48and I think we, at the time that CNN was founded and launched,
00:53we, I suppose, revolutionized news media in the sense
00:56that we were the first major channel and platform to go 24-7.
01:00Since then, we've built out our platforms as you might expect,
01:04obviously with Linear still playing a really big role
01:08in what we do around the world,
01:10but we're now across all of the different platforms
01:13that you would expect.
01:14So on our own and operated platforms, CNN.com,
01:18but we're now in fast channels,
01:20we're obviously across all of the different social platforms
01:22and I suppose really that's a reaction to audiences continuing to fragment,
01:28consumer habits changing, media habits changing,
01:32and so really our job, I suppose, as a global publisher
01:35is to go where those audiences are
01:37and to continue to provide them with content
01:40as they consume it on whatever platform that is.
01:43because today is really unstable, everything moves really fast.
01:47So how do you keep an eye on that and still be in the race?
01:52Yeah, you're right.
01:53I think there's a huge amount of content providers that are out there now.
02:00I think we are still one of the sort of global names
02:05that people recognize around the world.
02:08Absolutely, I think we, you know, we command attention
02:11when there is big global breaking news.
02:13There is no doubt that that's what we're known for around the world.
02:16But we've also diversified like a lot of publishers now
02:19into other types of content.
02:20So we cover business content, travel content, luxury and style content.
02:24And so I think it's again just meeting consumers' news.
02:28Consumers, obviously our audience is still very much interested in news content,
02:32but they're all interested in other things as well.
02:34So we continue to reinvent and invest in other types of content
02:38that match what our consumers are looking for.
02:41As a major like CNN today, we know as a major as well,
02:45there is kind of an issue with the trust people are giving to the major in it.
02:51Yeah, no, absolutely. And we see it as well.
02:56I would say, you know, we talked about it right at the beginning of our conversation,
03:01you know, we're a 46 year old brand.
03:02And I think we've built hopefully a level of trust and authenticity
03:08with our audiences over that time.
03:11And I would argue that actually today that's probably more important than it's ever been.
03:15I think there are, I think we were saying there are huge numbers of media outlets now,
03:20content creators, anybody can be a publisher in their own right on social platforms.
03:25It's obviously given people an outlet to do that.
03:28But I think that's driven misinformation at times.
03:32And it's driven, I think, organizations like ourselves
03:35and other sort of reputable news brands to kind of double down on the fact that
03:39audiences come to us because they know that it's verifiable, fact-checked, trusted content.
03:45And I think actually in the world of AI, in the world of kind of, you know, synthetic material,
03:51this kind of AI generated content, I think actually news brands and other publishers around the world
03:57in many ways, I think it will become more important because audiences are going to need to go to places
04:02to get content that they can trust. And yeah, absolutely.
04:06Mark Thompson, you see, target digital revenue like a million, a billion even, a billion by 2030, I think.
04:17How does it change the way CNN goes to market today?
04:22Yeah, so Mark has been with us, I think now for just over two years.
04:26Obviously previously he was at the New York Times and then obviously director general at the BBC before that.
04:31He's really ushered in, I think, a transformation period for CNN where we are taking, as I said before,
04:39we're obviously now across all of the different digital platforms that you might expect.
04:43But Mark has really launched a new product for us called All Access that's going to be a direct-to
04:47-consumer,
04:48new sort of mobile digital first product.
04:51The way you are going to be able to get the full suite of CNN products on your phone
04:56and consumers will be able to buy directly from us.
04:59So it's a huge change. We're looking to roll that out internationally this year with some markets around the world
05:05and we'll continue to push that out.
05:08And, you know, it's another opportunity for us to find ways of going to consumers directly.
05:14So we're very excited about it.
05:16It gives us the opportunity, as I said, to kind of move from our sort of traditional linear base
05:21into what we hope will be the kind of premium video first news provider around the world in your pocket.
05:29So, yeah, very exciting.
05:30And you're trying live events as well?
05:33We are. So last year we launched a new live event series.
05:37Of course CNN anchors and journalists around the world have always been at live events,
05:42covered live events around the world, wherever they are.
05:45But we felt that actually particularly our partners were looking for ways to extend their campaigns with us
05:51from, say, traditional media channels into the kind of live space.
05:54And so it's really an opportunity for our anchors and journalists around the world to speak
06:00and interview people in front of a live audience.
06:02We have two events coming up this year,
06:05one in Bangkok around the IMF and World Bank meetings taking place there in October.
06:09And actually just yesterday we launched a new date for our first event in the Middle East,
06:14coming at a very important time for both the region and the world.
06:18Yes, indeed.
06:18And so we'll be doing an event at the end of October in Qatar,
06:21where we'll be bringing global leaders from across government and from the corporate sector
06:26to a very important meeting to discuss what's next for that part of the world,
06:31but also for the world with all of the troubles that we've seen over the last few months.
06:35Is it important today to doing events at the era where everything is AI or LLMs?
06:41Well, again, I think it's an opportunity for our journalists to have live conversations.
06:47I think we've taken the view that we're going to film these events for broadcast quality
06:52so we can use that content, clip it, take it, use it across the full breadth of CNN platforms.
06:57But I think to your point, it's what we're finding from partners is that in this era that we're now
07:03in,
07:03physical connections, the ability to connect face to face has again, I think, never been more important,
07:10particularly for leaders. I think leaders are looking for the opportunity to get together with other leaders to discuss common
07:16issues.
07:16And so we're finding that, you know, a lot of our partners are very interested in this idea of a
07:22live experience
07:23and how we translate that into outcomes for businesses.
07:26What about the brand content? You've got CNN Create. You're 20 years old, I think.
07:3320 years old, thank you.
07:34How did it evolve in two decades?
07:36Yeah, we started really as a response to clients that didn't have a kind of a creative solution of their
07:45own.
07:47Developing, you know, linear TV campaigns for them, helping them, as I said,
07:50realize what they were trying to do with us as a partner.
07:53That has developed hugely now and branded content, as I'm sure you're aware,
07:57has become incredibly popular and common across brands, across sectors,
08:02for a way for them to connect with audiences in an authentic and meaningful way.
08:07Many of our clients around the world use our studio to bring their brand to life.
08:12We believe in using human-led stories to do this and finding interesting stories
08:18and ways of connecting with audiences that resonate with the brand.
08:22So we now have a full multimedia studio suite and the team will manage creative across linear, digital and social,
08:31now into the live event space as well.
08:34And it's a big part of our go-to-market strategy.
08:37Clients use us heavily around the world to support, as I said, their communication with CNN.
08:41All right, good to know. Thank you, James. It was a delightful conversation.
08:45Thank you for coming here.
08:46Thank you again for having me. It's been great.
08:48Great. Have a good time.
08:49Thank you. Bye-bye.
Commentaires