Cathy Ibal, Senior Vice President, Advertising Sales, CNN InternationalThe news cycle for 2026 has started at lightning pace. In the first two months of the year, there has been multiple elections around the world, seismic moves in geopolitics and the global markets, climate stories and a packed business news agenda, particularly in the field of technology and AI.
There is audience appetite for such news and information as people want to understand what’s happening in the world and share and debate the news with their friends and networks – this has become even more acute due to an acceleration of AI-generated content and misinformation, giving even more reason for audiences to turn to credible, established sources for verified information.
Against this backdrop, the news industry is undergoing significant change in adapting areas of production, formats and distribution to ensure that the provision of news and information is relevant in the stories we are telling and how we tell them.
Understanding the audience
Key to the transformation taking place in the news industry is a commitment to meet the audience where they are. It is important for news organisations to have an audience-first approach, which means being present across all platforms where people consume news. This includes cable TV, digital, mobile, social media, audio, newsletters, connected televisions and of course streaming, which CNN launched in the US last year.
Taking a multi-platform approach provides an opportunity for us to engage broader and more diverse audiences, connecting with people in different ways. It is also a path to grow greater scale through a powerful combination of platforms – in CNN’s case this means having our TV channels in 379 millions households and hotel rooms, a monthly digital audience of 122 million, and over 295 million social media followers.
We continue to invest in new platforms and distribution strategies, including in Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST), one of the fastest growing platforms in terms of audience consumption and investment from brands. Our FAST channel CNN Headlines is already available in the region, and we have plans to expand its footprint in key markets such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE this year.
Another new innovation for the region this year is that our global events series, Global Perspectives, is coming to Doha in April. This will be an occasion for dignitaries, political and business leaders, and visionaries from around the world to discuss pressing issues around global and regional geopolitics, technology, media and culture. In an ever-increasingly digital world, events such as Global Perspectives present an important moment for human connection centred around compelling live journalism.
Content offering across multiple platform
We are acutely aware of the dynamic nature of content consumption in the Middle East – with much of the population under the age of 30, the region is home to an accelerated take-up of new technology, and therefore ways of consuming news media.
To that end, we have a considerable content offering for and about the region – from the flagship show Connect the World broadcast from Abu Dhabi and fronted by Becky Anderson, one of the most recognisable figures in the region’s news landscape, to the recently launched CNN Creators from our new operation in Doha, to CNN Arabic, which has delivered a digital-first news service since it first launched in Dubai in 2002.
Broadcast TV news remains incredibly important as part of our strategy is to cater for all audiences across the region through continually innovating across these complementary news offerings on multiple platforms.
Alongside having a content strategy for owned and operated platforms, news organisations are utilising social media to deepen engagement with audiences. This is particularly pertinent in the Middle East – as demonstrated by recent research from Differentology which shows that CNN audiences in the region are 1.5 times more likely than the global average to engage with CNN via social media and mobile apps.
This finding reflects a region that is heavily skewed towards social‑first news consumption and also CNN’s strong social media presence and content strategy which enables our brand to reach different demographics in relevant, native ways.
Adopting new technology
Powering the innovation and platform expansion in media is the greater use of advanced technology, in particular AI. However, when it comes to news organisations, we recognise that we must adopt new technology in a particularly careful and transparent way.
At CNN, any use of AI – whether for commercial, editorial or product development – must adhere to our standards and practices and strict AI guidelines to ensure our audiences and brand partners can always trust our work in this area.
Within these guidelines we are investing in new roles to drive AI innovation in the company, manifest in product development, our work with some platform partners and in some areas of editorial such as AI-driven fact-checking and misinformation detection tools. In my area of CNN International Commercial, we have used automation and machine learning in our commercial solutions for many years.
Specifically, commercial operations within media companies can use AI to power audience targeting and personalisation tools, to automate time-consuming tasks in brand studios and to understand large data sets for audience insight and campaign evaluation.
Trust remains key
The reason we focus so much on transparency when it comes to new technology is because trust is so important to the way that news organisations operate and are perceived. The saying goes that trust is hard won and easily lost.
In a recent survey of international news consumers in 20 markets including from the Middle East, research company Differentology found that 6 out of 10 people are concerned about the credibility of information sources and are looking for platforms that can verify facts, offer in-depth coverage, and provide clear context for understanding global issues.
In an age where change in the media industry is moving almost as fast as the news cycle itself, it’s imperative for news organisations to be committed to continual innovation, exploring new formats and growing our presence on more platforms. 46 years ago, the entire concept of 24/7 cable news was borne out of innovation. It’s easy to argue that we’re at a similar moment of opportunity now where news organisations can undertake transformational steps to be essential to an even wider range of audiences in new, different ways.
by Cathy Ibal, Senior Vice President – Advertising Sales, CNN International
