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

END

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash2cnn.htm

Screw Gallup.

George Gallup Jr., son of the poll’s
founder, was the longtime head of the
company and now directs its non-profit
research center.Why hasn’t he pushed
for an update of the company’s likely
voter modeling, which his own father
pioneered in the 1950s?

Gallup, who is a devout evangelical
Christian, has been quoted as calling
his polling "a kind of ministry." And a
few months ago, he said "the most
profound purpose of polls is to see how
people are responding to God."

Gallup already produces a five minute daily podcast, which is pretty good.

This should be much ado about nothing. CNN should have been doing their own polling a long time ago

For some reason I thought CNN did their own polling

Why are you dragging garbage over here from the friggin' DRUDGE and their sludge?

Who cares about that lowlife website????

You are wacked out Hughie..

Show me something other than Drudge as a source and I might move this out of the rumors section.

-P

CNN Refutes Gallup Memo; Says Memo Was Unprofessional & Untrue
CNN has issued the following response to TVNewser's report that Gallup is ending its partnership with the network:

"Jim Clifton's statements are not only unprofessional but in every respect untrue.

Jim Walton actually spoke with Jim Clifton, CEO of The Gallup Poll, and was told by Mr. Clifton that the reason that Gallup wanted to end their partnership was that the CNN brand was so dominant that Gallup wasn't getting the attention for the polls that they wanted.

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.

While we appreciate that Gallup does not wish to have any broadcasting partner for the future, I must note that CEO Jim Clifton's excuse to his employees for ending the relationship has no basis in fact. It shows ignorance of not only our viewership figures but of the reach and value of the CNN brand.

Domestically, our viewership was grossly misstated in his comments. CNN's average monthly reach in 2005 was 66.7 million, far and away the No. 1 source for cable news.

Internationally, CNN stands as the leading news channel for a global audience, according to the European Management Survey, and continues to build upon that lead.

In addition to our broadcasting platforms, our news services extend to radio stations, computers, wireless devices and mobile phones and is available to more than 2 billion people in more than 200 countries and territories. Online, CNN.com and CNNMoney.com are two leaders in terms of credibility and audience, reaching an average of 23 million users every month.

For the last few months, we have been in the process of reevaluating our polling strategy and have been in discussion with a number of other polling services. We hope to have an announcement of our new partner in the near future. It is unfortunate that Mr. Clifton's insecurity about the strength of the Gallup brand has pushed him to send out an inaccurate e-mail to his staff."

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/

Gallup Doesn't Want Or Need CNN: Polling Company Ending 14-Year Partnership
First on TVNewser: Citing low viewership and its own ambitions, The Gallup Poll is cutting its ties to CNN this summer.

Reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, Gallup Poll publisher Steve O'Brien confirmed that his company's partnership with CNN is not being renewed. It runs through the end of June, he said.

The Gallup Poll, "a widely recognized barometer of American opinion," is frequently cited on CNN broadcasts. Gallup, CNN, and USA Today have been polling partners since 1992.

In a memo dated Wednesday, March 15, CEO Jim Clifton wrote: "We have chosen not to renew our contract with CNN. We have had a great relationship with CNN, but it is not the right alignment for our future."

"CNN has far fewer viewers than it did in the past, and we feel that our brand was getting lost and diluted," Clifton continued. "...We have only about 200,000 viewers during our CNN segments."

Gallup no longer wants a broadcast partner, according to the memo. "We are creating our own program and we don't want to be married" to one network, Clifton wrote. Analysts like Frank Newport will be seen as more independent under the new arrangement, he added.

"We have offered to help CNN find a new polling partner and to be as helpful as we can during this transition," Clifton concluded. Gallup IS renewing its deal with USA Today. The newspaper has about 10 million readers per day, the memo noted.

CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/

Drudge is rarely a source and watch the personal attacks

Oh, Hughie! You have such thin skin....

Holmey claims they get a lot of show topics from drudge. Personally I think drudge is like the National Enquirer of the web.

No I have thick skin, sometimes it's fun to to be a cry baby like many liberals I encounter here on the board. I have never reported one person for an infraction, even in the CO forum. Can the liberals say the opposite? I doubt it

Wow! Congratulations! You're better than everyone else.

Forget Gallop.
Zogby is better and more accurate.


Mac

Agreed, Mac, as always. Zogby doesn't seem to be afraid of asking the tough questions. They were the first one I saw to pose the impeachment question.

Hey "Hughie Lewis and the NON-News"


Where's your story other than MediaBistro > copied over to Drudge? I'm not saying it's not true --- but it's not anywhere on the web.

BTW, I'm completely bummed to hear that Holmey uses Drudge for obtaining information!!!!! Shocked AND bummed!

Ever read his bio?

The janitor at the Enquirer has more of a background in journalism than Matt Drudge does!

Holmey.. That's seriously a bummer to hear!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Holmey doesn't get "information" from Drudge so much as he gets ideas for topics. There's a big difference.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Holmey.

Hey Hughie,

That was real cute how you complained about someone using a personal attack and than you turn around and start sounding like O'Rielly.

The cry baby liberals!!...........That's such a Faux news comment

New material Please!!!

Matt M.

Polls give us opinions in a pile. Polls are skewed by the people who commission them. They have their place, but should be viewed in their contexts. CNN slipped in many areas due to the Gallup orgnization's fall from grace as an independent polling agency.

You ever notice when somebody opens their mouth, their ears disappaear? All the bad jokes about blondes seem to be paled in comparison to the cheapshots we take at each other. (Sorry to all blondes--not a fair comparison--but then I do sound like what I am--a Democrat with 300 acres and a lake) I hunt, I fish, collect guns, give generously to NRA programs for children, but not any religious faith or disorder. Iam, in short my own person. Name calling and a desire to be as dumb as Dubya is not something I stoop to.

Let me pose this poser: When either side wins, absolutely and completely, will we have to invent boogey men? Ironically, the Republicans have a majority in every branch of government and still can't get it right. Six years is a long time to wait for the fix, unless the fix wasn't the real agenda. Nawwwww. Except for the parts about getting rich or powerful at the public's expense--just like the Dems used to....so:

I ask again, if one side wins, then what do we do next? Have seperate lines for winners and for the rest of us? Where yellow stars that say "Democrat" or "Liberal"? Slippery slope, my friends. Wonder what the SA thought when they came for them in the night?

The childishness of some folks on either side proves nothing. Nothing. It does demonstrate the trait of open mouth, lose ears.

What will be left? think about it, a Republican Vet gets just as shabby a deal as a Democratic Vet. Our kids get the same crappy deal now for college aid. Our future is mortgaged to the Chinese. Our national debt has no political party, just payback.

I ask again: What will be left if we keep fighting over who is most stupid? We still have to love in this country and live here. Just because I or another disagrees does not mean we have to leave. Although it is tempting to sit back and watch the republican good guys suffer from the republican bad guys....some fun, huh?

Hughie, Karl Rove will not call you his buddy, George B will not even give you the time of day 'cuz he's rich and I'd bet you're not (heck neither am I) ...but he will use your views to his ends and then leave you in a heap when he's done with you.
How will you feel then is up to you.

That's what I don't get. As a normal working American, why would anyone support these Rich, Pampered, Selfish White *SSHOLES that don't give a crap about the average American!

Why?............Seems so backwards too me

Matt M.

Not sure, but maybe ask all the people who follow the Hollywood elite, or is really just that you disagree with their politics thus you will attack them for any reason?