How CNN Will Save Itself

6:00 AM PDT 8/7/2012 by Andrew Tyndall

Bland is a plus as the ailing news channel's fortunes lie in online expansion, not a Fox News face-off.

When it was invented about 30 years ago, CNN solved one of the major shortcomings of television news in the broadcast era: It was on all the time. Instead of waiting for the periodic morning and nightly slots that were assigned to news by broadcasters, the viewer was liberated to tune in to a dedicated news channel at any time of the day or night.