CNN.com’s Plans for World Domination…

Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman interviews CNN.com’s Vice President and Managing Editor Meredith Artley…

“We’re definitely shooting for much bigger fish than MSNBC and Fox,” Artley told me recently. (Fox, like MarketWatch, is owned by News Corp.) MSNBC is owned by Comcast.

I asked Artley what news site she was targeting, as she was already looking beyond the competitive threat of her traditional foes.

“It’s Yahoo — they’re the only ones who get more [traffic] than we do on a regular basis,” Artley said, referring to news sites.

Artley’s strategy for putting a scare into Yahoo centers on bolstering CNN.com’s appeal to users, based partly on creating timely new products. For instance, CNN.com is currently putting the finishing touches on rolling out blogs that Artley thinks will create a buzz.

The blogs’ subjects are: education, race and identity in America, the cultural and social aspects of technology, and technology in terms of innovation. “The common thread is that these are topics that people are passionate about,” she explained.

Related: CNN announcement on the blogs…

CNN Expands Beat Coverage Strategy

CNN Digital adds Photography, Education, Identity, Innovation and Tech to Network of More than 50 Blogs

CNN Digital is once again amplifying its beat reporting and storytelling around topics that inspire passion and conversation with the launch of five blogs focusing on photography, identity, education, innovation and technology.

“These beats are the latest in our strategy to extend CNN’s coverage beyond breaking news and into deeper areas of interest,” said Meredith Artley, managing editor of CNN Digital. “We know that these topics are among the ones that resonate with audiences across our digital platforms.”

CNN Photos is designed to tell stories through compelling, powerful and inspiring imagery. The intention is to highlight a range of stories that are illuminated through photos as well as the photographers who use images to tell stories; and to create an engaged community around photography’s power to connect people to the news. Conceived as a collaboration between CNN Digital, Turner’s Image Management and photographers inside and outside of CNN, users will be able to comment, share and read the story behind the moment the photo was snapped.

CNN.com has also launched a blog about identity in the U.S. as a companion to CNN’s ‘In America’ unit which has produced several documentaries anchored by Soledad O’Brien. The In America blog will examine the richness of American identity and diversity through the prisms of the struggles and achievements related to race, ethnicity, age, ability, gender, sexual orientation and class. Edited by a collaborative team of CNN.com producers and the ‘In America’ unit, visitors to the In America blog will also be able to find stories and video on a wide range of identity issues.

On the education front, ‘Schools of Thought’ will cover education from a variety of perspectives that include policies, practices and people. From pre-kindergarten through college, for parents, teachers, students – and anyone

who has ever been a student — ‘Schools of Thought’ offers food for thought in the national conversation on education. Slated to launch in mid-November, users can find ‘Schools of Thought’ in the U.S. section.

CNN.com is also launching two blogs dedicated to technology. What’s Next, which CNN.com launched at South by Southwest as a “pop-up blog,” will now become a hub for innovation stories, featuring coverage of game-changer ideas, thinkers who are seeing around the curve and events that will make a dent in the universe. It will also serve as an on-line companion to CNN’s new weekend programming, The Next List, a show that features profiles of exceptional individuals, who as agents of change are leading innovation, setting trends and making strides around the world.

CNN.com will also launch another tech blog focused on viral social and online conversations early next year.

CNN’s full blog network can be found at http://www.CNN.com/blogs. In 2011, CNN’s blog network saw an increase in traffic by about 60%, with roughly 111 million page views accounting for 10% of CNN.com’s total traffic.