CNN Headline News - Around the World in 30 Minutes

In 1981, CNN was the world's only 24-hour news network. While Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. had yet to be profitable, the network's rapid growth was encouraging. When ABC and Westinghouse announced a plan that year to launch its own 24-hour news network, CNN's future was challenged. 

TBS, Inc. countered with one of the most dramatic steps not only in the history of the organization, but also in the history of cable television. In just 90 days, CNN built a newsroom and studio, hired a staff and began a successful marketing effort to cable operators and consumers. On January 1, 1982, TBS, Inc. launched CNN Headline News (then known as CNN2).

Upon launch, the network positioned itself to consumers and cable affiliates through a succinct, benefit-oriented tagline that summarized the essence of the programming. "Around the World in 30 Minutes" strategically and creatively positioned the network's programming format. Committed to its new positioning, CNN Headline News infused the tagline into all of its marketing efforts throughout the years, including consumer print and cross-channel cable advertising. Through a combination of consumer communication and brand extensions within the cable industry, CNN Headline News' tagline made a lasting impression in the minds of consumers and industry professionals alike. The longevity of "Around the World in 30 Minutes" helped solidify a space as one of cable marketing's most durable campaigns.

The essence of this tagline has been the underpinning of CNN Headline News for almost 20 years and continues to guide the network as it undergoes the most sweeping transformation in its history. "Around the World in 30 Minutes" let viewers know CNN Headline News would deliver comprehensive, fast-paced news suited to their busy lives. Because viewers are busier today and their schedules more demanding and varied than ever before, CNN Headline News is changing to keep pace with their changing needs. 

The new CNN Headline News will broadcast from a specially designed studio that lends itself to fast-breaking news and engaging interaction between anchors and correspondents. The network's multi-person anchor team is poised to get news to viewers with extraordinary speed, and its graphics and visual images will enliven and organize the screen in ways that viewers will find both useful and compelling. The new network is focused on speed and will be one of the most important stops in the day for busy viewers who need to know what's important in their world but who need to know it fast.

The new Headline News remains indebted to the creators of "Around the World in 30 Minutes" because of the foundation it helped the network establish. "Around the World in 30 Minutes" became one of television's most memorable and successful taglines and is responsible, in part, for CNN Headline News' continuing mass appeal among consumers and cable affiliates alike. Most significantly, it embodies the spirit of entrepreneurship and creativity that have defined CNN Headline News - and Turner Broadcasting -- for almost 20 years.