CNN Chief Trying To Energize A Network Knocked On Its Heels by Fox's Success

(The Associated Press -- By David Bauder)

JONATHAN KLEIN wants to bring out the Bronx in CNN.

There's a toughness, an aggressiveness imbued in many residents of the new CNN chief's native borough. They have street smarts that residents of posher neighborhoods have rarely needed to get ahead.

Stamping that underdog personality on TIME WARNER INC.'s CNN requires nothing short of an attitude transplant, a willingness to fight at a complacent organization knocked on its heels by years of executive turmoil and ratings dominance by scrappy rival FOX NEWS CHANNEL.

In four months on the job, the former CBS NEWS and Internet executive has pushed behind the scenes for CNN to set the nation's news agenda, to pour resources at major stories and concentrate less on talking and more on storytelling, particularly in prime time.

"All I'm asking them to do is better journalism," he said. "Who could be resistant to that? Now that FOX has pretty well cleaned their clock for a few years, there's a real desire to win, a real thirst."

Although NEWS CORP.'s FOX NEWS CHANNEL's lead over CNN during Klein's tenure is wider than it was a year ago, recent ratings signs have been positive for CNN. The network has become increasingly competitive in breaking news periods, beating Fox head-to-head when MARTHA STEWART was released from prison, for example. And CNN's viewership in April was up 11 percent from a year ago, while FOX was down 6 percent, according to NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH.

"What we are looking for is a noticeable improvement of the work on the air," he said, "and I think we've seen that."

The energetic Klein, who's writing a screenplay for JERRY BRUCKHEIMER in his spare time, is a former CBS NEWS executive who left in 1998 to found THE FEEDROOM INC., one of the Web's top video streamers.

Probably his biggest initial challenge was inspiring troops weary of a management merry-go-round. He's the eighth executive to hold one of the top two slots at CNN since FOX started in 1996. During that time, ROGER AILES has remained Fox's unquestioned boss.

"I don't agree with him on everything," said JOHN KING, a veteran Washington hand just appointed a CNN national correspondent. "But I will say that this place was desperately lacking in leadership, someone saying 'This is what this place is going to be, this is what I'm going to do.'"

Klein has done that, he said.

"If you want to get things going in a different direction, you cannot start compromising things right away," King said, "especially in a place that has a history of trying to undermine the leader."

When he arrived, Klein said he found a network that was content to be doing what everyone else was. CNN was bewildered by FOX's success; its original plan had become obsolete and not really replaced by anything.

He's made no major personnel changes, other than to let TUCKER CARLSON leave for MSNBC. INSIDE POLITICS anchor JUDY WOODRUFF announced last week she would leave in June.

"What I'm finding is we have all kinds of strengths at CNN, many of which have been hidden," he said. "Our job is to go around and unearth them."

Klein is directing CNN to move fast on major stories like the tsunami, taking advantage of its status as the world's largest television news network to provide context behind the headlines. He also wants CNN to quickly identify less obvious big stories; its coverage on the weekend that Congress debated the TERRI SCHIAVO case outpaced its rivals and started the story on its path to becoming a cable news obsession.

He's also behind prime-time tweaks.

He directed AARON BROWN to get rid of his "whip" news summary and opening commentary in favor of a more intense concentration on a big story. Brown's hourlong special on the arrest of the BTK killer was a ratings winner.

He also encouraged PAULA ZAHN to get over an "election hangover" dependence on politics and focus on personal stories about people in the news.

Both shows hit ratings milestones in April -- Zahn had her best numbers since her September 2003 debut, and Brown since the beginning of the Iraq war two years ago.

When Woodruff interviewed ROBERT NOVAK about his conversion to Catholicism -- part of a discussion of the late POPE JOHN PAUL II's appeal -- it was an example of Klein's wish to get network personalities more involved in stories.

Sometimes that effort is more jarring, like when RICK SANCHEZ strapped a shock belt around him and writhed on the floor in pain to show the security device's effectiveness.

If they're worried over at FOX, they're not letting on.

Asked at a recent public appearance whether CNN did anything that he envied, Ailes said no.

"Our focus is on beating the broadcast networks," said FOX spokeswoman IRENA BRIGANTI. "We wish Jon well in his battle for second place with MSNBC."

Former CNN Washington bureau chief FRANK SESNO, now a professor at GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY, has come back to do some part-time work at CNN and is impressed with what he sees in Klein.

"I think he has energized the place," Sesno said. "I think he has been very creative and smart and has a lot of new ideas. He believes that news and storytelling can work, can be compelling and can attract an audience."

There's some nervousness about whether an emphasis on storytelling will crowd out hard news, King said. Washington news may get less attention under a Klein regime; he hasn't said whether INSIDE POLITICS will continue without Woodruff and virtually scuttled the long-running debate show CROSSFIRE. (It now appears just as a brief segment of other programming.)

"The political landscape has changed radically, but political coverage on television has not changed in 40 years," Klein said. "It's time to change the way we cover politics."