CNN Pressroom - New Assignment for Eli Flournoy Stands as Pivotal Part of CNN Worldwide’s Content Ownership Strategy

Eli Flournoy has been appointed CNN Worldwide’s first director of International Newsource, one of the pivotal parts of the network’s content ownership strategy which has seen the hiring of nearly 50 additional staff, including 10 new correspondents, in recent months. The appointment was announced today by Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International.

Flournoy, a 17-year veteran of CNN’s newsgathering operations in the United States and internationally, is charged with overseeing the expansion of the unit and ensuring our global affiliates receive the increasing amount of CNN original content.

CNN Newsource provides more than 1,000 affiliates around the world with customized programming, breaking news, feature and documentary programming by harnessing CNN’s Worldwide global newsgathering resources with the collective coverage power of CNN Newsource affiliates.

“Eli is a smart and deeply committed journalist and producer, and his promotion to the role of director of International Newsource underscores both his commitment and the depth of talent at CNN,” Maddox said. “This is a crucial appointment and a much-needed new position at CNN, which champions our commitment to our global affiliates and the valuable partnerships they have with CNN.”

This appointment is another step in the expansion of CNN’s global newsgathering and editorial services, which has the specific task of increasing the amount of editorial and video content CNN creates and owns.

Flournoy joins a growing team of new appointments that now numbers almost 50; four new international editorial operations have so far been established. In the coming months, CNN plans to announce even more new hires as well as the opening of additional offices in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.

Formerly a supervising editor on CNN’s International Desk, Flournoy has been central to directing coverage of the world’s biggest stories of the last 15 years, including the Bosnian War, the Kosovo War, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Princess Diana’s death, the war on terrorism, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Southeast Asia tsunami and the Israel/Lebanon conflict.

Flournoy also has extensive field-production experience which includes coverage in Angola in 1994, Indonesia from 1998 to 2000, Israel and the Palestinian Territories in 2002; India and Pakistan in 2005 and Hong Kong this year. Flournoy has also worked on site with CNN affiliate stations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Angola.

An award-winning journalist, Flournoy was part of the CNN teams that earned a duPont-Columbia award for the coverage of the Southeast Asia tsunami, an Edward R. Murrow for coverage of the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon, a Peabody award for coverage of Hurricane Katrina and an Asian Television award for coverage of the 1999 Indonesian elections.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.