GALLUP POLLING DROPS CNN AFTER 'LOW RATINGS'; FULL MEMO REVEALED
Tue Mar 21 2006 19:01:37 ET
The GALLUP polling company has dropped CNN as its outlet for electronic distribution.
GALLUP, CNN and USA TODAY have been polling partners since 1992.
"CNN has far fewer viewers than it did in the past, and we feel that our brand was getting lost and diluted," GALLUP claimed in an internal memo, obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.
CNN tells TVNEWSER.COM, which first reported the split: "We want to make it clear that the decision to not renew our polling arrangement had to do with GALLUP's desire to produce their own broadcasts and not about CNN viewership figures. In fact, GALLUP had negotiated with us for four months in an effort to extend the partnership."
**EXCLUSIVE**The full memo, by Jim Clifton, Chairman & CEO of GALLUP:
We have chosen "not" to renew our contract with CNN.
We have had a great partnership with CNN but it is not the right alignment for our future. The longtime partnership has been very helpful to The Gallup Poll as it put us "back big" fifteen years ago when our famous Gallup Poll had lost most of its national coverage. Our CNN partnership helped us make a great comeback. We had a great run as we just cut our 4000th segment this week.
The Gallup Poll will go on with more polling than ever, but with new distribution channels.
WHY. 1) CNN has far fewer viewers than it did in the past and we feel that our brand was getting lost and diluted combined with the CNN brand. We have only about 200 thousand viewers during our CNN segments.
2) We are creating our own e-broadcasting programs and we don't want to be married to one broadcast network. We don't want to move to another network like CBS or Fox but rather become our own network. We cannot do this while married to CNN.
3) By dissolving our partnership with CNN we believe that Frank and other Gallup analysts will be seen as more independent so they will be more likely to be invited on a wide variety of television shows rather than primarily linked to CNN. We believe with this new found independence, we will get covered by more broadcast media because we are not the poll of their competitor.
4) We have enthusiastically renewed our print partner, USA Today. They have arguably the best readership of any newspaper in the world. It has approximately 2.4 mil subscriptions and 7.5 mil readers per day. Far more than the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. And it has substantial international coverage for being a US paper. We also believe that print is a much needed way to present our polls for those interested in studying a chart or reading analysis.
In the big picture, USA Today supplies more than 10x the users per day than CNN. USA Today is our 800lb paperboy. Or the primary distributor of The Gallup Poll. We want to have two primary distribution channels. 1) USA Today and 2) e-Gallup News. We will go on any regular TV show for guest appearances because it will help build our e-viewership. We also will be featured on AOL's front page for news. The AOL e-distribution will likely add more eyeballs per day than all of CNN.
This is a big move for us. We have to boldly change and invent new futures for Gallup or we will not survive the hurricane of competition coming from all directions in everything we do. I personally proposed the deal to Ted Turner about fifteen years ago while backstage at a "People's Choice" event and then again at their headquarters in Atlanta. It has been a great partnership and one that has meant a lot to this CEO. One in which we have all been very proud and one where we delivered our very best work every week. We have offered to help CNN find a new polling partner and to be as helpful as we can during this transition.
Jim
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harvard Under Fire
Tuesday , March 21, 2006
By Brit Hume
Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Who'll Be in the White House?
A new FOX poll on presidential politics holds good news for Republicans Rudy Giuliani and John McCain and both good news and bad for Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton.
Giuliani and McCain lead the pack among registered Republicans with 29 percent and 22 percent respectively, with all other GOP challengers well back. Among Democrats, the poll shows Clinton with a huge lead over second place finisher Al Gore ? who said again yesterday that he's not planning to run.
But in general election matchups, Senator Clinton runs well behind Giuliani and McCain ? losing 51 percent to 39 percent against Giuliani and 50 percent to 39 percent against McCain. In fact, the New York Senator comes out on top only against Vice President Cheney, whose approval number in the most recent FOX News poll is 35 percent.
Harvard Scholarship
Harvard's Kennedy School of Government has come under fire for publishing a paper co-authored by the school's academic dean ? alleging that a vast network of largely Jewish officials manipulated the U.S. into invading Iraq.
"The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" alleges that a cabal of journalists, Christian evangelicals, think tanks and top-ranking administration officials have set a Jewish agenda for U.S. policy in the Middle East.
The research paper has been blasted by Kennedy School fellow Marvin Kalb and former Mideast Envoy Dennis Ross ? named as part of the lobby ? who tells The New York Sun that the paper displayed a "woeful lack of knowledge on the subject."
Bernanke Optimistic
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is upbeat about the state of the economy ? saying today that he expects it to keep growing at a brisk pace.
This as a new report notes that lower energy costs helped push wholesale prices down by the largest amount in nearly three years and unemployment remains under 5 percent, with 243,000 jobs created last month. But despite the positive news, a new Gallup poll reveals that the public remains negative on the state of the economy.
Just 35 percent of Americans say the economy is excellent or good ? and 61 percent think it's getting worse. Fifty-four percent of Republicans say the economy is improving, compared to just 15 percent of Democrats and 24 percent of independents.
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
Speaking of Gallup, the polling organization is ending its 14-year relationship with CNN citing the network's declining viewership.
In a memo to employees last week, CEO Jim Clifton praised the past relationship with CNN, but said "it is not the right alignment for our future," adding, "CNN has far fewer viewers than it did in the past, and we feel that our brand was getting lost and diluted."
But CNN is calling the memo "unprofessional" and "in every respect untrue," saying Clifton told CNN he was ending the partnership because "the CNN brand was so dominant that Gallup wasn't getting the attention for the polls that they wanted."
Tue Mar 21 2006 19:01:37 ET
The GALLUP polling company has dropped CNN as its outlet for electronic distribution.
GALLUP, CNN and USA TODAY have been polling partners since 1992.
"CNN has far fewer viewers than it did in the past, and we feel that our brand was getting lost and diluted," GALLUP claimed in an internal memo, obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.
CNN tells TVNEWSER.COM, which first reported the split: "We want to make it clear that the decision to not renew our polling arrangement had to do with GALLUP's desire to produce their own broadcasts and not about CNN viewership figures. In fact, GALLUP had negotiated with us for four months in an effort to extend the partnership."
**EXCLUSIVE**The full memo, by Jim Clifton, Chairman & CEO of GALLUP:
We have chosen "not" to renew our contract with CNN.
We have had a great partnership with CNN but it is not the right alignment for our future. The longtime partnership has been very helpful to The Gallup Poll as it put us "back big" fifteen years ago when our famous Gallup Poll had lost most of its national coverage. Our CNN partnership helped us make a great comeback. We had a great run as we just cut our 4000th segment this week.
The Gallup Poll will go on with more polling than ever, but with new distribution channels.
WHY. 1) CNN has far fewer viewers than it did in the past and we feel that our brand was getting lost and diluted combined with the CNN brand. We have only about 200 thousand viewers during our CNN segments.
2) We are creating our own e-broadcasting programs and we don't want to be married to one broadcast network. We don't want to move to another network like CBS or Fox but rather become our own network. We cannot do this while married to CNN.
3) By dissolving our partnership with CNN we believe that Frank and other Gallup analysts will be seen as more independent so they will be more likely to be invited on a wide variety of television shows rather than primarily linked to CNN. We believe with this new found independence, we will get covered by more broadcast media because we are not the poll of their competitor.
4) We have enthusiastically renewed our print partner, USA Today. They have arguably the best readership of any newspaper in the world. It has approximately 2.4 mil subscriptions and 7.5 mil readers per day. Far more than the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. And it has substantial international coverage for being a US paper. We also believe that print is a much needed way to present our polls for those interested in studying a chart or reading analysis.
In the big picture, USA Today supplies more than 10x the users per day than CNN. USA Today is our 800lb paperboy. Or the primary distributor of The Gallup Poll. We want to have two primary distribution channels. 1) USA Today and 2) e-Gallup News. We will go on any regular TV show for guest appearances because it will help build our e-viewership. We also will be featured on AOL's front page for news. The AOL e-distribution will likely add more eyeballs per day than all of CNN.
This is a big move for us. We have to boldly change and invent new futures for Gallup or we will not survive the hurricane of competition coming from all directions in everything we do. I personally proposed the deal to Ted Turner about fifteen years ago while backstage at a "People's Choice" event and then again at their headquarters in Atlanta. It has been a great partnership and one that has meant a lot to this CEO. One in which we have all been very proud and one where we delivered our very best work every week. We have offered to help CNN find a new polling partner and to be as helpful as we can during this transition.
Jim
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harvard Under Fire
Tuesday , March 21, 2006
By Brit Hume
Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Who'll Be in the White House?
A new FOX poll on presidential politics holds good news for Republicans Rudy Giuliani and John McCain and both good news and bad for Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton.
Giuliani and McCain lead the pack among registered Republicans with 29 percent and 22 percent respectively, with all other GOP challengers well back. Among Democrats, the poll shows Clinton with a huge lead over second place finisher Al Gore ? who said again yesterday that he's not planning to run.
But in general election matchups, Senator Clinton runs well behind Giuliani and McCain ? losing 51 percent to 39 percent against Giuliani and 50 percent to 39 percent against McCain. In fact, the New York Senator comes out on top only against Vice President Cheney, whose approval number in the most recent FOX News poll is 35 percent.
Harvard Scholarship
Harvard's Kennedy School of Government has come under fire for publishing a paper co-authored by the school's academic dean ? alleging that a vast network of largely Jewish officials manipulated the U.S. into invading Iraq.
"The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" alleges that a cabal of journalists, Christian evangelicals, think tanks and top-ranking administration officials have set a Jewish agenda for U.S. policy in the Middle East.
The research paper has been blasted by Kennedy School fellow Marvin Kalb and former Mideast Envoy Dennis Ross ? named as part of the lobby ? who tells The New York Sun that the paper displayed a "woeful lack of knowledge on the subject."
Bernanke Optimistic
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is upbeat about the state of the economy ? saying today that he expects it to keep growing at a brisk pace.
This as a new report notes that lower energy costs helped push wholesale prices down by the largest amount in nearly three years and unemployment remains under 5 percent, with 243,000 jobs created last month. But despite the positive news, a new Gallup poll reveals that the public remains negative on the state of the economy.
Just 35 percent of Americans say the economy is excellent or good ? and 61 percent think it's getting worse. Fifty-four percent of Republicans say the economy is improving, compared to just 15 percent of Democrats and 24 percent of independents.
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
Speaking of Gallup, the polling organization is ending its 14-year relationship with CNN citing the network's declining viewership.
In a memo to employees last week, CEO Jim Clifton praised the past relationship with CNN, but said "it is not the right alignment for our future," adding, "CNN has far fewer viewers than it did in the past, and we feel that our brand was getting lost and diluted."
But CNN is calling the memo "unprofessional" and "in every respect untrue," saying Clifton told CNN he was ending the partnership because "the CNN brand was so dominant that Gallup wasn't getting the attention for the polls that they wanted."
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