CNN Reviews

Pros

CNN is widely regarded as leader in the news industry and provided me with great exposure, recognition, globality, flexibility and accountability

Cons

CNN and all Turner companies provide a trampoline in the industry, but salaries and befits were not competitive in the industry or in the market

Pros

pay and benefits improved significantly.

Cons

lots of closed groups and silos but also plenty of challenges that present opportunities
too slow in making decisions or taking on new ideas

Advice to Senior Management

While sr execs are good people they need to be more connected to the ground floor

Pros

-Great vacation package
-Great 401-K package
-Great health care package

Cons

-limited opportunities for growth
-weak management team

Advice to Senior Management

There is a reason CNN is getting killed in the ratings by our competitors. We need new anchors/producers/management/vision. It is time for a new vision/management team to turn the team around.

Pros

People are friendly (including talent), a great view from the cafeteria, networking is encouraged, some people are really willing to help. Interns are paid minimum wage. Internship orientation was good for networking with other interns.

Cons

Sometimes I felt useful, but others I felt very useless. A few of the media operations staff are intentionally very rude to interns, though many of them are quite nice.

Pros

name recognition, location, offices, work/life balance

Cons

Very top down, not a-lot of authority unless you are executive management

Pros

-- Coolness factor of working for such a well known organization.
-- CNN.com is a part of Turner Broadcasting which is a great organization.
-- They are hiring which allows for resume building and entry into a great company (but make sure you read the cons below).

Cons

-- I've worked for TBS for over a decade in various divisions. CNN.com has always been busy but the last three years have been unbearable and I see no signs suggesting this will change in 2012. In my opinion, the SVP of CNN.com who started three years ago is the reason. He embraces a burn and churn environment. The company is doing well financially but employees burn out and leave quickly. There has been massive turnover in the last 12 months. I suspect that quality will begin to drop shortly due to new employees and established employee burnout.

Advice to Senior Management

I would like to ask that management on the corporate (Turner) level look at some HR stats on turnover. The place is completely dysfunctional and the current management team is at a loss on how to fix it. Turner has lost a tremendous amount of knowledge and dedicated employees (many with 10 years of dedication to the company). If you aren't feeling the pain yet, I believe you will soon. At a minimum the environment at CNN.com does not support Turner's overall employee work life balance promise.

Pros

Great exposure by working at a big network company and there are plenty of opportunities to move around within the company itself. Because of its size, there is a certain amount of access to resources that would be less available at smaller firms.

Cons

Because of its size, it's easy to get swallowed up and not recognized at a high level for some very good work being done.

Advice to Senior Management

holding meetings or town halls with non-managemetn types in smaller settings to really get an idea of how things work could give some insight about what changes may or may not be needed.

Pros

Access to some of the best in the industry

Cons

Unpredictable hours, as is the nature of the news industry

Pros

Makes you proud to work there; people are very passionate about what they do; Definitely a good learning experience.

Cons

They don't hire their freelancers instead they hire more freelancers to replace freelancers; sometimes management doesn't listen to worker's needs.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire freelancers on because they have worked with the company even up to a year. Why hire more freelancers?

Pros

-Benefits/ 401K
-4 weeks of vacation
-Cheap cost of living in Atlanta
-Great staff minus middle management

Cons

-Terrible managers
-No real prospects of career advancements
-Low morale and lots of bullying by managers
-No support on projects or encouragement to be creative
-Bad Journalism

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees and report the news.