CNN makes reporters part of the show

CNN is updating one of its signature shows, in part by cashing in on the TV celebrity of former "NYPD Blue" actress Andrea Thompson. On Aug. 6, she will take her place as the lead co-anchor in a speeded up, modernized "Headline News" studio newsroom built to deliver "news at the speed of life" to a demographic the network has dubbed "time warriors." In case that sounds confusing, executives say simply that the target audience is everyone who juggles family, work - and TV news consumption.

"We're modernizing the brand promise," says Teya Ryan, executive vice president and general manager of "CNN Headline News." "It's the news you need when you need it."

While the snappy new music and rapid-fire exchange between multiple reporters sitting around a chrome-and-glass horseshoe newsdesk is geared toward lowering the median age of viewers, now 58, the target audience is also relatively mature.

"Time warriors are people in motion, baby boomers who do more, manage more, make more decisions, all in the course of a day," Ms. Ryan says. Waxing a tad hyperbolic, she describes ideal viewers as "people who embrace change, who live exciting lives, but for whom time is a premium. Time warriors, in short, are all of us."

Television news programming is struggling for eyeballs across the channels.

Many newscasts, particularly local shows, have embraced the notion that chummy chat between anchors and the development of "personality" anchors will raise ratings.

But CNN has long been known as a network whose mantra has been the words of founder Ted Turner, "the news is the star." Many have regarded the network that earned its stripes by using young reporters gathering news ahead of the established stars as a bulwark against personality-based television news.

No longer. The newly hired Walter Isaacson, formerly a Time Inc. executive, where he also was charged with updating a name brand, defends the decision to feature recognizable faces.

" 'Headline News' is about news and about having people you really connect with and want to hear it from and can engage with," says the chairman and CEO of the CNN News Group. "I think you want to have Lou Dobbs and Jeff Greenfield. You may want to have Andrea Thompson. You may want to have Wolf Blitzer, or whatever. You want to have people you can connect with."

"Television is also a personality medium," says Jamie Kellner, the newly installed chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System. "Introducing new, exciting personalities is another way to attract an audience, and there's forms and formats that have not been tried on these networks that I think are interesting opportunities."

Critics are suggesting that CNN is succumbing to the temptation to substitute showbiz flash for solid journalism, but the executives defend their new strategy. "Ultimately, it's still CNN," Ryan says. "We're not going away from the mandate of CNN, and I think you can't find a more respected news organization. And the journalists that work on 'Headline News' are CNN journalists. We're going to be as responsible as we've always been."

Industry observers suggest that using a celebrity to front the changes doesn't necessarily degrade the quality of the news gathering.

"It's a question of accountability," says Andrew Heyward, president of CBS News. CBS's decision to allow one of its news reporters, Julie Chen, to be on the reality show, "Big Brother," generated what Mr. Heyward says are similar questions about undermining the credibility of a news organization.

He says experimentation is fine as long as there's full disclosure: "I'd put it in the category of acceptable risk. I only worry about it when there's no accountability."

The new anchorwoman, Ms. Thompson, a former star of the ABC crime drama "NYPD Blue," allows that her celebrity had something to do with her hiring.

"I am not a seasoned journalist," says Thompson, who left her acting role to anchor the news at a small TV station in New Mexico. She calls herself a "promising journalist.... I am someone who has demonstrated to the management at CNN my dedication, my passion, and my willingness to do whatever it is to bring the news to you in a fair, balanced, and accurate manner."

If celebrity played a role in getting her job, she adds with a laugh, "use me, baby."