CNN Shorts is a brand-new vertical video player for smartphones that the network has introduced on its website as part of its never-ending attempt to reach younger news consumers.
CNN already creates news briefs in vertical format for YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok. Currently, it perceives a developing chance for CNN Shorts on the platforms it owns and runs, where it may provide its own advertising directly to consumers. On October 25, CNN Digital debuted a test version of their vertical video experience at cnn.com/shorts/cnn-shorts.
According to Athan Stephanopoulos, CNN EVP and chief digital officer, the “vast majority” of the network’s viewership accesses its programming via mobile devices, particularly mobile web. He declared, “This is a huge opportunity to bring our advertising partners and our audience a more native mobile video experience.”
Viewers have been able to locate CNN Shorts even in the absence of any true promotion. CNN reports that since its debut on cnn.com, completion rates for its CNN Shorts video series have increased by 36%, as have starts per viewer, 32%, and time spent per viewer, 17%. There are plans to soon add a new CNN Shorts section to the CNN mobile app. Users navigate CNN Shorts in a vertical stream, just like they do on other platforms for short-form video.
The video team at CNN Digital creates ten shorts a day on average, with durations ranging from fifteen to sixty seconds. According to Stephanopoulos, “we are increasingly taking content natively in vertical orientation and editing it, rather than taking a package from linear video and repackaging that for vertical.”
