CNN will bring Anderson Cooper to the Amazon Echo - Digiday | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it

For years, CNN’s news brand has been synonymous with its hosts and anchors. Yet as it’s set up beachheads on the platforms where more and more people consume news, it’s had to leave its broadcast stars on the sidelines: You can get CNN news on Facebook and Snapchat and Twitter, but you won’t get Anderson Cooper or Fareed Zakaria or Erin Burnett.

 

A week before Election Day, that’s going to change, when it unveils a skill for the Amazon Echo that will give listeners near real-time updates sourced directly from CNN’s broadcast and its anchors (Skills are Amazon’s name for capabilities that third parties like CNN develop for Echo). It’s part of a broader push to optimize CNN’s content for quicker, more efficient distribution across the channels.

 

“We put a lot of work into ensuring our audience hears our talents’ voices,” said Alex Wellen, CNN’s chief product officer, adding that he wanted the experience of using the new Amazon skill to feel “more chat than bot.”...