Happy birthday to CNNArabic.com!

The website launched on this day (January 19) in 2002, with a mix of news, special reports and exclusive interviews in Arabic for readers around the world.

CNN is noting the 10th anniversary of the website with the press release below.

CNN Press Release: CNNArabic.com celebrates 10 years of coverage

Today marks a significant milestone in the history of CNNArabic.com, as the site marks 10 years since it began providing news in Arabic to audiences around the world.

Launched on 19 January 2002, the site has seen the Arab world change beyond recognition, and charted a decade of events across world news, theMiddle East, science and technology, business, entertainment, and sports for a global audience of Arabic speakers. Its mix of special reports, videos, exclusive interviews and daily stock market reports has gained the site around a million unique users per month and seven million page views per month.

The site has also become a key part of CNN’s international newsgathering capability, contributing to reporting across the network’s services. It has also played a pioneering role in reaching out the Arab world’s influential blogging community and introducing dedicated sections for Arabic-speaking social media groups.

“Right from the moment it launched, the layer of analysis, knowledge and nuance that CNNArabic has given to CNN’s coverage of the Arab world has been invaluable,” said Tony Maddox, senior vice president at CNN International. “It has enabled us to deliver a picture of events, issues, people and places in fully rendered detail, right across the network. Audiences across the globe turn to CNN for this considered coverage, and this is in no small part down to the hard work, dedication and resourcefulness of the CNNArabic team.”

The events of the Arab Spring have seen CNNArabic.com’s contribution become even more valuable to the network, especially online. "The contribution of CNNArabic.com to CNN’s coverage of global news has been vital to our digital success, especially during last year’s Arab Spring," said Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services. "We’re proud to celebrate CNNArabic.com's 10-year anniversary and their excellent coverage of the Arab world for audiences everywhere, whether in Arabic, English or Spanish."

Caroline Faraj, CNN Arabic digital services director, highlighted the interactive relationship the site has with its growing audience. “Our audience is a constant source of ideas and inspiration for us. Throughout our first decade they have given us ideas, suggestions and comments, and we have walked together step by step. This has been invaluable in delivering credible news and professional journalism across the network. We’re hugely thankful for this input and look forward to our next decade growing together.

The way in which the Arab world has embraced digital media over the past decade was also highlighted, "The digital revolution has had a profound impact across the Middle East, especially among the youth”, said Rani Raad, SVP & Managing Director, CNN International Advertising Sales and Business Development, “In a region that generates close to a thousand tweets a minute and has more than 36 million Facebook users, CNNArabic.com has been at the forefront – delivering a credible window on the region and beyond."

Speaking about the future plans for CNNArabic.com, Peter Bale, Vice President & General Manager, Digital, CNN International, added: “CNN Arabic is a vital and growing part of the CNN digital network. Its dedicated team has carved out a strong voice in the region and a big following among Arabic speakers worldwide. It is an authentically Arab service with the integrity and independence consumers and advertisers expect from the CNN brand. We aim to grow CNN Arabic to better serve one of the world’s most economically dynamic and newsworthy regions.”

CNN Press Release - Victor Kong, an executive with a range of multi-media experience, will lead CNN Radio as vice president, it was announced today by Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services, a division of CNN Worldwide which encompasses the company’s digital and affiliate businesses. Kong will manage CNN Radio in developing new audiences, partnerships, and content for digital platforms, and continue providing the best original audio news content to CNN’s terrestrial radio affiliates. He will be based in CNN’s Atlanta offices and will report to Grant.

“We are excited to have Victor lead CNN Radio’s original audio news content in the media landscape,” said Grant. “Victor will expand CNN Radio into the digital world and develop audio content for consumer demand. He brings a dynamic skill set from his multimedia career and a proven track record building partnerships, growing audiences and integrating digital media.”

Prior to joining CNN, Kong was executive vice president, sales and business development at Hoodiny; previously, Kong served as vice president at MySpace Latin America, where he also served as managing director since 2007, starting the company in Latin America, launching the mobile business, initiating aggressive viral marketing campaigns and producing numerous community-building events. Previously, he was vice president of growth strategy and new media sales and business development for MTV Networks Latin America.

Kong joined Terra Networks 2001 and ultimately led the company’s Ecommerce activity in the USA, Spain and Latin America. In addition, his career includes working abroad and in the financial sector with positions at McKinsey & Company in Miami, Booz Allen & Hamilton in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Banco Surinvest S.A. and Citibank Uruguay S.A. in Montevideo, Uruguay. Kong earned a bachelor of arts degree with distinction in economics and international relations from Stanford University and a masters of business administration with honors from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.

CNN Pressroom - Content Licensing via Self Service Website Storefront

CNN launched a commercial self-service on-line storefront of its wire stories today, September 15, 2009, enabling journalists, publishers and media organizations to license CNN story content through a web based service at www.cnnwirestore.com. The CNN Wire Store is available globally to license and download individual CNN Wire stories for $199 per story for a single use, utilizing a simple credit card transaction. The site allows publishers to browse through CNN Wire articles, hold selected articles in a cart for review, check out easily, and download story content on demand.

In discussions with publishers and journalists about the news industry and the changing face of the marketplace, CNN earlier this year expanded the offerings of the existing CNN Wire service and made it available for subscription. And now CNN provides the new CNN Wire Store for publishers needing content for single use and on demand basis.

“CNN understands the changing business landscape of journalism and the marketplace. The expanded CNN Wire provides an opportunity for a new platform to make CNN Wire stories easily accessible, and for the first time, on a per-story basis to any publisher, anywhere on their own timetable. With the launch of the CNN Wire Store website, we’ve made our original journalism easily available to other publishers on demand,” said Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services.

CNN Newsource Sales will support the new CNN Wire Store commercial website. CNN Newsource Sales is the arm of CNN which oversees the network’s relationship with more than 800 affiliates including TV stations and local/regional cable news channels throughout North America, and is the most widely distributed syndicated news service. Senior vice president and general manager for CNN Newsource Sales Ed Stephen added, “The CNN Wire Store gives journalists the ability to utilize CNN’s enterprising reporting to expand their coverage of key issues. And because the CNN Wire is now available à la carte, they have the flexibility to pick and choose the specific stories that are right for them.”

With the CNN Wire Store website, publishers will easily license and have access to use the text that CNN uses, including among others Christiane Amanpour’s reports from around the world, medical reports from Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and investigations of the social fabric, like Black in America with Soledad O’Brien and numerous other CNN journalists. The text will include CNN’s award-winning reporting, whether consumer, politics, health, entertainment, technology and investigative, as well as the robust economic and financial reporting of CNNMoney.com, utilizing the most extensive global financial reporting in the world.

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.

CNN Press Release - CNN Worldwide, in partnership with Turner BroadcastingSystem, Inc. (TBS, Inc) and 21st Century Leaders, is hosting the fourth annual Leadership Unplugged: A CNN Experience, a week-long program developed exclusively by CNN employees to teach rising high school juniors and seniors in Georgia about media literacy, journalism and personal leadership. Leadership Unplugged takes place June 22-26, 2009, on the campus of Georgia Institute of Technology.

“My CNN colleagues and I are thrilled to offer these exceptional young people a forum to further develop their personal leadership styles, as well as learn more about some of the most critical challenges facing media professionals every day,” said Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services. “The opportunity to mentor Leadership Unplugged ambassadors is an honor for CNN executives and anchors alike, and we hope each of the students gains as much from the experience as we do each year.”

During the Leadership Unplugged program, 100 high school students - selected from a competitive pool of applicants from across the state of Georgia - will learn how news stories are presented on different platforms, as well as the impact social networking is having on the media landscape. The students will participate in workshops and discussion groups on a range of topics including diversity, ethics in media and audience engagement; and will attend panels and mentoring sessions featuring CNN executives, reporters and anchors including CNN’s Kyra Phillips and Tony Harris; HLN’s Richard Lui; CNN International’s Colleen McEdwards; and CNN.com’s Reggie Aqui and Melissa Long.

The curriculum for Leadership Unplugged is developed by CNN Student News, CNN’s cost-and-commercial-free news program for middle and high school students, and the classes and workshops are led by volunteer employees at CNN and TBS, Inc. After attending the classes and workshops throughout the week, the students work in teams to develop a story idea based upon the lessons they have learned. The week concludes with the student teams presenting their proposals before a panel of judges comprised of CNN and TBS, Inc. executives.

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.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.

21st Century Leaders, Inc., is a non-profit organization whose mission is to inspire the next generation of Georgia leaders by empowering high school students with essential business and community leadership skills through programs connecting a diverse group of enthusiastic peers and passionate professionals.

CNN Pressroom - Building on its tremendous momentum and record-breaking success, CNN.com has appointed Kenneth “KC” Estenson senior vice president and general manager, it was announced today by Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services. Estenson is currently vice president of digital media for Disney-ABC Cable Networks Group and will join CNN.com Tuesday, Sept. 2.

A strategic, energetic leader with a track record of success in the development and distribution of digital businesses and content across both the entertainment and news arenas, Estenson will oversee all aspects of CNN.com’s business. He will be based at CNN’s worldwide headquarters in Atlanta and will report directly to Grant.

“CNN.com is in the strongest position in its history, experiencing record growth and revenue, and it is more critical than ever for us to look toward new frontiers of online content creation and distribution,” Grant said. “I’m confident KC is the person to lead us to innovate in new, exciting and impactful ways – not only because of his impressive success in building and growing digital businesses, but also because of his passion and enthusiasm; superb operational insight and people skills; and hunger to guide others as well as learn from them.”

“Joining the No. 1 news and information site on the Web is thrilling, and I am eager to begin working alongside the exceptional editorial and business operations team already in place at CNN.com,” Estenson said. “The opportunity to develop new and innovative ways to take CNN.com to the next level is a challenge I’m excited and enthusiastic about taking on.”

At Disney, Estenson oversaw the digital media businesses across the company’s online, on-demand, mobile, gated broadband and wireless products for Disney’s wholly-owned cable networks including Disney Channel Worldwide, SOAPnet and ABC Family. During his tenure at Disney, Estenson played a critical role in a wide variety of projects, including the development of Disney-ABC’s digital media product and distribution strategy; the assessment of Disney-ABC’s international television distribution strategies; and the launch of ABC News Now broadband service.

Estenson first joined The Walt Disney Company in 2001 and was focused on the integration of new divisions, projects and businesses into the company, in particular after Disney Media Networks’ acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide.

In 2007, Estenson received a 2007 Primetime Emmy® Award for Excellence in Interactive Television Programming for ABC Family’s Fallen Alternate Reality Game.

Estenson received his bachelor’s degree in political science with honors from St. Mary’s College of California and studied at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He also earned a master’s of education from Harvard University.

CNN.com is the world's No. 1 destination for online and wireless news, garnering the greatest audience share among current events and global news sites. Launched in 1995, CNN.com draws from the resources of CNN Worldwide and its many partners to provide consumers with the most enriching, immediate interaction with news anywhere, seamlessly combining articles, videos, images, interactive features and user-generated content. CNN.com’s news video offering – both live and on-demand – is unparalleled on the Web. CNN.com’s recent awards include an Edward R. Murrow award, a National Headliner award and two EPpy awards.

CNN Pressroom - Enhancements Incorporate Extensive User Feedback to Improve Usability, Interactivity of Site
Reaffirming its position as the leading Internet site for news and information, CNN.com unveiled on Sunday, July 1, the latest evolution in online news: an intuitive, integrated Web site that puts users within a click of the global, national and local news and information they find most relevant to them.

With the site’s enhancements and redesign, users can access the news of the day through a story package that provides text, images, video, related stories and user-generated content. Also, the live online video content that was available through the subscription-only CNN Pipeline becomes woven into the fabric of CNN.com. All CNN.com video, live and on-demand is available to users for free, making the site’s news video offering the most extensive on the Web.

“To simply describe this relaunch as a site redesign grossly understates what we’re doing at CNN.com,” said Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services. “This goes beyond the next level of online news and jumps straight into a fully integrated experience in which articles, videos, images and user-generated content all come together to give users a more enriching, immediate interaction with the news content and information they need and want.”

The goal of CNN.com’s latest evolution is to enhance and simplify online news for consumers to allow them to access and interact with their information in more ways than ever before. To that end, improvements to CNN.com and its international edition include:

· Integrated multimedia storytelling that puts text, videos, photos, maps, charts and more all accessible on one page. Tabbed elements allow easy access to a variety of media types, allowing users to determine themselves how they get the news they want.

· The most news video on the Web with larger video screen. Both live and on-demand video – including CNN’s massive online video archive – are available free of charge without need for downloads. A new on-demand video player offers a Flash-based, play-in-page experience complete with larger and higher quality video and tools to create playlists and provide feedback. A live player provides access to up to four live video streams, one of which is guided by CNN.com-exclusive news anchors – the only offering of its kind on the Web.

· Locally relevant content, allowing users to personalize CNN.com to offer enhanced weather forecasts and personalized local headlines. This content comes from various sources and content-sharing relationships, including CNN.com’s more than 860 CNN Newsource affiliates and the recently announced strategic alliance with Internet Broadcasting, the nation’s largest publisher of TV station Web sites.

“If there was an ‘easy button’ for getting all your news in one place, the relaunched CNN.com would be it,” said David Payne, senior vice president and general manager of CNN.com. “Every element of the site, from the user interaction to the design, was done with simplicity and usability in mind.”

Additional new features and enhancements of note include:

· “Hot Topics,” section fronts that provide in-depth multi-media content based on timely, newsworthy stories.

· “All About” pages, thousands of pages giving users access to an archive of stories that CNN.com – and other selected media sources – have published on almost any subject.

· “We Recommend” feature, which presents users with stories and videos from CNN.com and other content partners based on the user’s past CNN.com browsing history.

· “From the Blogs” feature, which aggregates comments from blogs around the Web discussing either a specific story or topics related to one published on CNN.com.

· Highlights at the top of every article, which enable users to scan and digest story details quickly, and a “Next” link, which allows them to browse through story highlights quickly. CNN.com also directs users to related content, one way in which the site reveals connections between stories. As an effort to be a good Web citizen, CNN.com also offers links to content available on other news and information sites and blogs.

· More ways for users to engage in news through feedback, content submissions with I-Report articles, video, photos and and blog commentaries.

As the first Internet site dedicated to 24-hour news coverage, CNN.com attracts an average of more than 24 million unique users each month. Launched in 1995, CNN.com draws from the resources of CNN Worldwide to provide relevant, up-to-the minute news and information. CNN.com features the latest multimedia technologies, from video streaming and user-generated content to audio packages and searchable archives of news features and background information.