A Winner Never Quits

How adventurous billionaire Ted Turner invented the 24-hour news cycle

- By Keith Gordon

When media mogul Ted Turner launched his Cable News Network on June 1st, 1980, it marked a water-shed moment for the information age. Despite initial public skepticism, CNN’s unique around-the-clock news coverage not only changed the television news industry, it altered our entire society and set it on a course it would travel for the next four decades.

After the public’s adoption of CNN and the 24-hour news cycle, no longer were people willing to wait for the evening news for updates on current events. They wanted it immediately. Likewise, no longer would they be satisfied with checking stock prices, weather forecasts and sports results in the morning newspaper. Society’s demand for information, and the expectation that it be available instantly and constantly, can be at least partially attributed to the prescience and intuition Turner showed in founding CNN. Many point to CNN’s coverage of Operation Desert Storm as a pivotal point in bringing the channel, and the need for 24-hour news coverage, to a huge segment of America. But its impact can be felt constantly, even when war is not raging live from the other side of the globe.