It's been up for a while now, but I just went to look around and I gotta say it's looking good. They looked like they were floundering during the medium change but based on the site I think it's more accurate that they're slowly trying to integrate CNN - the pundits, journalists, stories, and brand with proven web stuff and they're definitely doing things right. Some of the online stuff isn't new, but in the new package with everything else it's starting to take shape and make sense. Lots of video, their Live video system actually uses Octoshape which is like torrenting the live stream - everyone who activates it becomes part of the grid and distribution network so during peak viewing times quality of the feed and buffering will improve as people opt in. Their other video player for non-live content is equally impressive in letting you quickly make playlists of videos, view info and related videos similar to Youtube's player, and more importantly when you embed, and share a link on twitter which takes you to twitter via cnntweet.appspot.com. That's right they wrote they're own tweeting application hosted on Google Appspot that creates a tweet to the video using bit.ly. NewsPulse.CNN.com is a digg style article browser, where popular stories bubble up to the top. The other day I started watching Amanpour, I'm not sure if she has a show on tv cause I don't have one anymore, but the video podcast is great and daily. I think they should have given her a show a long time ago, but I'm just glad tomorrow I can download another one.
It's also about time more business woke up and started investing in podcasts and new media. How is it that they invest in TV where everybody changes the channel, hits mute, or goes to the bathroom during commercials and they don't seem to be interested in new media - where it's on demand and most people WANT to watch ads because they're more targeted and give viewers a means to 'reward' the hard work that went into creating and distributing the content. Because so many independents are creating content now, they talk about it, and viewers of new media are more aware of where and how their content gets to them because of it, and more happy to support those that create. We feel indebted to those that go out of their way to bring us content the way we want to consume it.
Back to CNN.com they've got a bunch of social media, and dashboard apps and widgets, an incredible iPhone app that does video, their shows have blogs, their personalities are on Twitter, Don Lemon is at blogworld shooting video on a handheld camera, and you can get a CNN.com account that gives you a personalized page of recently viewed items, local weather; news; and stock quotes.
I'm very impressed, clearly they've been paying attention. Do I think TV as a media format will die anytime soon? I think like radio, TV will be around for a long time still, but I think it will start to have more focus on live shows, late night/interview stuff and the triumphant return of the test pattern during the day. People that have access to tons of on-demand content won't sit around staring at 50 year old tv shows. People will continue buy more smart media centre devices, but there will always be a different screen for the living room/office/bedroom.. for people that have all those rooms.