45 Years Ago, CNN Changed The World. Then The World Changed CNN.

Here’s a thought experiment for you: The U.S. has suddenly found itself at war, and the first shots of the conflict are being fired at this exact moment. What TV news channel would you turn on to learn more: CNN? Perhaps Fox, or your local news? Would you even turn on a TV at all? And if I’d asked you this question, say, five years ago — would you have a different answer?

For decades, the answer to that first question — for millions of Americans, and much of the world — was CNN. It was the network people reached for in such moments of uncertainty, crisis, and global significance as the Challenger explosion, the Gulf War, 9/11, election nights, and presidential debates. CNN made its name by being on when no one else was, delivering live news around the clock and across the globe. It wasn’t just the first 24-hour news network; it was a public utility during moments of chaos.

Forty-five years ago this week, at 5 pm Eastern Time on June 1, 1980, CNN went live for the very first time. For its viewing audience, tuning in would eventually become a kind of Pavlovian response to breaking news — and to anything major unfolding anywhere in the world. The network’s promise was the world’s headlines, at all hours of the day, right from your TV set. On that score, CNN founder Ted Turner fundamentally “changed the way people get their news,” network anchor Wolf Blitzer tweeted on Sunday.

To mark the anniversary, some CNN employees across the organization this week have shared photos of red cupcakes, the tops of which were decorated with the words “CNN: Celebrating 45 Years.” Many of the network’s anchors and journalists, like Blitzer, opened the X app and dashed off their respective ruminations — journalists like international correspondent Larry Madowo (“When CNN says ‘go there,’ I’m always like: say less. And I’ve gone all around the world representing, bearing witness.”) and anchor/correspondent Kristie Lu Stout (“…with technology and audiences ever on the move, you can find our reporting on linear, digital, social, streaming and audio. The revolution is not over yet.).

That’s the tendency, when arriving at such milestones — to celebrate the past, and the distance traveled. Alongside all the nostalgia, however, it’s also worth noting an important truth that points toward the CNN of the next 45 years:

The cable news network that changed the world, the one that acclimated everyone to the idea of always-on TV news and broadcasts filled with talking heads, has itself been changed by the world it helped to usher in.

Consider: The traditional TV sector in the US lost $12 billion in subscription and advertising revenue in 2024, according to one report. Cable TV subscriptions are also projected to decline from 34.7 million in 2023 to 27.1 million by 2028, continuing a shift away from traditional cable services. CNN, like its rival networks, has dealt with declining viewership in cable news by cutting production costs where possible and laying off employees (several hundred over the past three years), but none of that can alter the trajectory that the cable news business is on.

Pricey cable news subscriptions have all but gone the way of the printed newspaper, as mobile screens and personalized social feeds command an ever-growing share of their users’ time — which is to say, news is now something most people scroll past as opposed to sitting down for. And as consumers get accustomed to getting headlines in 15-second bursts, often algorithmically tailored to their worldview, the idea of TV news feels increasingly out of sync with how people engage with the world today.

Cable news is besieged on one side by changing user behavior and on the other by unforgiving economics — one eroding attention, the other bleeding resources.

To put it bluntly, this is an alternately weird and unsettling time to be in the news business — especially so for the cable news business. Those of us who cover it are having to expand our vocabulary to include the emergence of new companies with strange names like Noosphere and Versant. Veteran cable news broadcast personalities like CNN’s own Jim Acosta have decamped to new media platforms like Substack. The economics are such that CNN back in the fall even felt compelled to launch a paywall for CNN.com, by far the largest digital news in the US.

The talk-heavy nighttime lineup of Fox News, meanwhile, consistently trounces CNN in the ratings, a trend that shows no sign of abating. I say all that not to bash CNN, but to reiterate that the network today is far different from the one that emerged 45 years ago. If anything, it’s a more cost-conscious business these days, and its influence is no longer a product of simply platforming the loudest voices on cable.

If covering the network’s important journalism and interviewing its talent over the years has taught me anything, however, it’s that no one will be writing its obituary anytime soon — never mind the daunting challenges ahead. By the end of the year, for example, CNN will have launched a standalone weather app, CNN Weather, as well as a new subscription product that the network says “will provide a simple and centralized way for audiences to experience CNN’s journalism and original programming. Subscribers will be able to choose from a selection of live channels, catch-up features and video-on-demand programming, across all platforms.”

Both moves are part of CEO Mark Thompson’s ongoing digital transformation effort that’s still underway. CNN also in recent weeks announced major new hires including Choire Sicha, who joined CNN Worldwide as Senior Vice President of Features Editorial (Sicha came from Vox Media, where he served as Editor at Large for New York magazine).

These aren’t just survival tactics; they’re signs of a network still evolving, still experimenting. Forty-five years in, the network that once defined what breaking news looked like is no longer the only voice in the room. But for its workforce of journalists, of course, the instinct to bear witness is one thing that hasn’t changed. And that instinct will keep the network moving forward. Happy birthday, CNN.