How Ted Turner built CNN, the world’s first 24-hour news network

In 1980, he once again waded into uncharted waters — launching the world’s first 24-hour news network.

“Who goes and walks in the woods and comes up with an idea that no one has ever had before, and everyone derides it, saying no one wants to watch 24-hour news?” asked Korn, who also served as general counsel for Turner Broadcasting System. “Well, he was right, and everybody else was wrong.”

Turner’s CNN, headquartered in Atlanta, would go on to become an indomitable force in news, not only pioneering in format but also in scope of coverage. It helped reshape the landscape of television news and turned Atlanta into a global media capital.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Turner, who died Wednesday at age 87 after a period of declining health, called creating CNN one of his greatest professional achievements. His death comes as the network faces its next chapter: a pending sale to Paramount Skydance amid a rapidly shifting media landscape defined by intense competition for audience attention and shrinking revenues.

The beginnings

After spending five years thinking about the idea, he decided to launch what he dubbed the Cable News Network in the late 1970s, he explained in his 2008 autobiography, “Call Me Ted.” He recruited Reese Schonfeld, then president of the Independent Television News Association, to help run the network on a shoestring budget.

Plans were publicly announced in the summer of 1979, with the first broadcast scheduled June 1, 1980. The operation had to be built from scratch. Cameras, lights, tape machines and satellite dishes were purchased. So was a building to house it all: the Progressive Club, a Jewish country club in Midtown that remains one of the buildings at Turner’s Techwood campus.

Turner admitted, in his autobiography, he really hadn’t watched much television news, but he had opinions about what he wanted CNN to be. The news itself would be the star of the network, not the anchors. Though, at one point, Turner tried to recruit Walter Cronkite.

The reception was mixed. Skeptics doubted there was a market for 24-hour cable news, or a fourth network outside of established juggernauts CBS, NBC and ABC.

CNN ran into issues before it even began airing. Six months before its launch, the satellite transponder that was supposed to carry CNN’s signal disappeared, and the network was stuck without a way to transmit. After jumping through several hoops, CNN managed to secure the one remaining transponder on the satellite servicing the cable business.

Rick Davis, a 40-year veteran of CNN who retired in 2021, began working for the network six weeks ahead of the first broadcast. He was hired as an executive producer of sports news. Concerned the rehearsals were not going smoothly, Davis told his boss that Turner should consider delaying the launch beyond June 1 because the team didn’t seem ready.

“I think (my boss) had a meeting with him,” said Davis, who had served as executive vice president of news standards and practices since 1998. “He came back and said: ‘No, goddamn it. I told the cable operators we were going to start on June 1, and damn it, that’s what we’re going to do.’ And that’s what we did.”

Credit: DWIGHT ROSS JR. / AJC FILE

Credit: DWIGHT ROSS JR. / AJC FILE

The first broadcast, however, went smoothly. Davis oversaw the second hour, which was sports news, highlights and interviews. About 20 years ago, he rewatched a tape of the hour and was impressed by what he saw, despite the outdated graphics, music and lack of gizmos the network later had.

“When we started off, it was somewhat bare bones, and we were mostly all in our 20s and 30s,” Davis said. “We were putting together half-hour and hour shows of sports news that nobody had ever done in the history of television news, except for ESPN, which started six months before us.”

despite hiring respected on-air talent such as Daniel Schorr, CNN initially was not taken seriously, earning the nickname “Chicken Noodle News.” When Davis tried to secure press credentials to interview athletes and other professionals, they had no idea what CNN was.

“They’d say, ‘CNN what?’” he said. “And we’d say, ‘CNN. You know that guy in Atlanta who owns the Braves and won the America’s Cup? Well, he’s started this new network.’”

In 1981, the network, led by Korn, would sue the White House to gain access to the press pool, paving the way for other networks to come in the future.

Still, the network hemorrhaged money. Turner initially financed CNN with the sale of WRET in Charlotte. It was not a lot of money for the scope of the operation, Korn said.

Turner’s thinking, as he chronicled in “Call Me Ted,” was that if CNN had enough cash to get on the air and could get through its first year of operation, people would see it was a viable and valuable service.

Once the concept were proved, it would have easier access to capital — or, at the very least, create a valuable asset it could sell to another competitor.

But Turner was never wringing his hands about money, said Jack Womack, a longtime CNN vet who retired as a senior vice president at CNN Worldwide in 2024. Turner continued to invest in the business, even though he was often days away from losing all of it. In 1984, he starred in a commercial for Diet Coke. At an assembly of the nation’s TV critics in Phoenix, he asked someone to fetch him one and said: “I did it for the money. I need the money. I’m losing millions with CNN.”

In 1986, amid millions of dollars in losses for Turner Broadcasting in the first six months of the year, analyst Lee Wilder told The Atlanta Journal, “Turner has been doing a Karl Wallenda tightrope act with his finances for years.” However, Wilder continued, “he has never crashed and burned.”

The anchors and reporters at the new upstart were young, hardworking and competitive. If a major news story broke, it was likely a reporter wasn’t going home for a couple of days, Womack said. It was all hands on deck, even if they were much lower paid than the major networks.

Turner was present in the early days, but he didn’t hover. He maintained a penthouse at Techwood and one at CNN Center. His business activities often kept him away from Atlanta, but a lucky few would see him tromp down the stairs in his robe and inquire about the morning paper.

Credit: Joey Ivansco

Credit: Joey Ivansco

He didn’t challenge anyone editorially, Womack said. He didn’t want to put his views on television. But he always knew what was going on at a big-picture level, entrusting his senior employees to execute his vision on a day-to-day basis.

The network expanded its lineup with “Moneyline,” nightly political debate program “Crossfire” and interview show “Larry King Live,” and launched a second network, CNN Headline News.

Revenues and viewership grew over time. Fidel Castro was even a viewer; eventually inviting Turner for a visit, sparking his interest in growing an international news business. Within five years, the network gained foothold, starting out with only 1.7 million subscriber homes from the get-go to approximately 80% of U.S. homes with cable TV in 1985.

Major stories increased CNN’s audience and its cachet in the broader news sphere. The Challenger explosion in 1986 was a watershed moment, as CNN was the only network providing live coverage of the launch. Another was the Persian Gulf War. CNN was the only news outlet reporting from inside Iraq during the American bombing campaign. CNN scooped the initiation of the war.

CNN relocated from Techwood to downtown Atlanta in 1987, occupying the Omni International complex, reflecting the scale of growth that was set to come as it became known as CNN Center. One year prior, Turner attempted to sell a minority interest in CNN, totaling between 30% and 40%, to raise cash to help finance his acquisition of movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

By 1995, the network had more than 2,000 editorial employees across several domestic and international bureaus. It was also facing stiff competition from other networks replicating what it pioneered: MSNBC, and, in a relationship that would grow strained over the next three decades, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News.

“We were splitting the world in three, when we had it all to ourselves prior to that,” Korn said.

21st century challenges

In 1996, Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner. Four years later, Time Warner merged with AOL, combining the world’s biggest media company with the world’s biggest internet firm. It would become one of the most disastrous mergers in history, with the share price plummeting and wiping out billions of dollars for Turner, the company’s biggest shareholder. Turner resigned as vice chairman of AOL Time Warner in 2003 and left the board in 2006.

CNN continued on without Turner’s watchful eye, despite his fingerprints remaining evident in the network’s international and environment reporting. It devoted more time to politics during the lead up to the 2008 U.S. presidential election and weathered criticism of party bias. This coverage would set the stage for what would become CNN’s most-watched year among total viewers up to that point: 2016, driven by its coverage of the presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In 2018, AT&T acquired Time Warner, forming WarnerMedia. In the following years, CNN began grappling with the same forces affecting many other linear television networks. Viewership was declining as consumers cut cable and switched to streaming services or began consuming content through social media. Advertising dollars, as a result, also fell. It leaned into streaming and launched the short-lived CNN+, which carried live news programming and original series. Turner was the first subscriber.

In 2022, WarnerMedia, including the Turner networks, merged with Discover Global, building a juggernaut that could fight off cord-cutting. The deal killed CNN+, but the network continued to bolster its digital presence. CNN has enacted a paywall on its website and plunged back into subscription-based streaming with a new product, called CNN All-Access.

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Credit: Miguel Martinez

But regaining lost viewership proved a tough nut to crack. In June 2025, WBD announced plans to separate its traditional cable businesses, CNN included, from its more profitable studio and streaming operations. In October, WBD said it would consider other options, setting the stage for dealmaking. Netflix emerged as the buyer of the studio arm. But Paramount Skydance, led by David Ellison, submitted multiple bids and triumphed as the sole buyer of the entirety of WBD, a deal favored by Trump, who has long assailed CNN as biased against him.

CNN is now in the hands of a media empire helmed by Ellison, whose portfolio also includes CBS. The Paramount-Warner deal has sparked concern among journalists, both within CNN and outside the organization, over job cuts and if Paramount would lead to ideological shifts at the news organization. There are also concerns Paramount will combine its CBS News unit with CNN.

When he led CNN, Turner vowed it wouldn’t sign off until the end of the world.

Could Turner, ever the visionary, have predicted the ways in which the television news landscape would transform an industry he helped pioneer?

Davis gives an anecdote. In 1998, at a luncheon for members of a trade association for the cable industry, Turner was the guest speaker. During a question-and-answer portion, a student at Georgetown asked him what he thought the cable business was going to look like in five years. Turner’s answer made the room erupt in laughter, as they were expecting Turner to give a sweeping bird’s eye view of the future.

“He looked at the kid, and he said, ‘How the hell do I know?’”