CNN in a Tough Economic Climate…

Bloomberg’s Sarah Rabil writes about CNN’s prospects in a tough economic climate…

CNN, surpassed by MSNBC for the first time in U.S. weekday primetime ratings last month, plans to increase its workforce this year and invest in its Web site.

In a “tough” advertising market, the cable-television news network will scale back investment in technologies such as mobile phones rather than fire employees, said Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide. CNN is hiring about 30 workers for its newswire service this year and plans to recruit more for international news, he said.

“We’re operating in the same economies as everybody else,” Walton, 50, said in an interview last week. While CNN’s ad sales are “not as robust,” they aren’t “horrible.”