centric TV programs, sprinkle in a little of the Barack Obama phenomenon and add a gee-whiz-worthy high-tech map, and you have a recipe that has cooked up favorable results for CNN. Even before there were side-switching super delegates, a fuzzy Bosnia-sniper story and “bittergate,” CNN had decided to make the 2008 election its top priority. But the Atlanta-based news network hadn't banked on a still-tight Democratic race that could stretch until the party's August convention. In March, two months after network executives had expected viewer interest in the primaries to subside; CNN averaged 444,000 viewers during the prime-time slot - 8 to 11 p.m. - for the key 25-54 age demographic. It was an 87 percent jump from the previous year and the first time CNN had captured the No. 1 spot for that age group since 2001 - a rare victory over archrival Fox News Channel. The question, media analysts ask, is how will CNN hold up when the political news dies down? “What happens when the election is over? Is the coach going to turn into a pumpkin again?” asked Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism. CNN's 2004 election coverage created the framework for the network's approach to 2008, said David Bohrman , a senior vice president for CNN and executive producer of CNN's primary coverage. Reporters went on the road with “CNN Election Express.” Producers lined the New York studio with wall-to-wall graphics. Anchors delivered Democratic and Republican convention news from the floor instead of behind a desk. The network dabbled in blogs. “It was not just everybody doing the evening news over and over every 30 minutes, which I think is the trap that all of the cable news stations had fallen into,” Bohrman said. Now, on any given primary-election night, reporters deliver news from the field, and their reports are supplemented by anchors such as Wolf Blitzer and Campbell Brown and at least a dozen other analysts and commentators. Journalists deliver not only the news, but also the network's message. “When one watches CNN for more than, let's say, 35 seconds, you are going to hear, ‘The best political team on television,”' Rosenstiel said. CNN won't disclose how much money it has spent on election coverage. Last year, the network budgeted for an “Elections Express” bus and decided to sponsor nine debates, held between April 2007 and February 2008. The candidates squared off at high-profile venues including the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where the debate took place in front of Air Force One. The network borrowed from reality TV and Web culture by letting viewers submit video questions via online site YouTube. The Democratic YouTube debate in July captured 2.62 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. The Republican candidates' debate in November garnered 4.49 million viewers. CNN's style of covering the elections mirrors how it handles other major news, said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. “On big stories, we swarm all over the scene,” Klein said. “We did it during the tsunami, we did it during [Hurricane] Katrina, we did it during the Schiavo episode.” That strategy led to the nightly “CNN Election Center” in the long-troubled 8-9 p.m. prime-time hour, along with “This Week in Politics” and “Ballot Bowl” making multiple runs on the weekends. Shows such as “The Situation Room” and “Anderson Cooper 360” have their fair share of political news and analysis as well. CNN created “Ballot Bowl” - showing live, full-length speeches from the candidates- after executives noticed how many people watched the debates, Klein said. They decided to start airing the candidates' daily speeches, without the political pundits breaking in. “'Ballot Bowl' is the anti-soundbite forum,” Klein said. “It's more of them, very little of us. That is the complete opposite of the model of the other TV shows. We flipped the formula on its head and continue to remind ourselves to get out of the way.” Bohrman is preparing for a dip in ratings once the Democrats have their candidate. “You get people who will come back, you get people who won't,” he said. “It's always an issue for CNN. More people check us every day to make sure the world is safe. But often, if that's the case, they go off and live their lives.” Derek Baine, an analyst at New York media research firm SNL Kagan, said CNN will “have to come up with something new” after the election. “There's always something around the corner,” he said. “Those guys kind of live and die by the next news event. They go great in times of wars and weird celebrity incidents.” Klein said CNN will be able to use its all-hands-on-deck strategy somewhere else, such as reporting on the faltering economy. For that to deliver the same ratings, viewers will have to be equally captivated, Klein said. “I don't think anybody knows where this is going to go,” he said. For Bohrman, the last few months have been a welcome but unexpected boon: “I didn't think it would go beyond Super Tuesday and Ohio.” - Cox News Service __
