CNN
We are in a financial crisis. The stock market is tumbling, banks are failing, investments are being wiped out across the globe. Being the information gluttons we have grown to be, we have to know about the state of the financial world on a minute-to-minute basis. That’s why we’re turning on CNBC and Fox Business Network as soon as we wake up in the morning.
But, we’re not tuning into CNNfn. Why? Well, it doesn’t exist anymore. If this crisis took place in 2004, when the CNN business channel went off the air, then it would have been all over this story. But, things were going swimmingly in the economy during that time. Plus, CNNfn had been struggling to find an audience for the network since it premiered in 1995. There was no longer a market for this type of channel in a world where business information was just a click of a mouse away.
Yet, here we are, a scant four years later, and business news on television is now more important than ever. Oh sure, CNN has its CNNmoney website but, in a world that wants explanations coming from a live person that they can see, it is not a suitable replacement. My guess is CNNfn won’t be returning to the air anytime soon. That’s too bad. Since it looks like this financial crisis will be lasting into the new presidential administration everything looks to be coming up roses for the cable business networks.
Clacked by Richard Keller 
on Sep 29, 2008 @ 15:01 EST5EDT
But Richard… does anyone really watch financial networks? I don’t have the historical numbers handy, but my recollection is that the average viewer counts for CNBC and FNN and others is pitifully low. Can Turner make money with “yet another financial news station” in a marketplace full of them?
Hah. I wrote “Turner”. Obviously I meant TimeWarner. It isn’t 1986 anymore :)