CNN.com: You Lost Me At "Bikini-Clad"

By Chris Kerns | 1 Comments | Posted in in Analytics | Permalink

Checking out CNN.com the other day, I noticed something strange that freaked me out a little bit. Here's a screenshot -see if you can spot it.

No, it's not Hillary Clinton (that's a different blog entry.) Check out the headlines, and the icons next to them. There's a couple of video camera icons for video content - those have been there for a few years. But there's also something new - little t-shirt icons.

When you click on them, here's what you see:

I'm not making this up. CNN.com has added another way to generate revenue by leveraging it's content in the form of t-shirts. Headlines that used to live for 4-5 hours can now become a permanent addition to your wardrobe. With the success of online businesses like shirt.woot.com and threadless.com, it's not a total stab in the dark that the wacky online t-shirt market would have the potential to be successful. But does it make sense for the overall CNN.com strategy?

It depends, of course, on the strategy. CNN describes itself as "among the world's leaders in online news and information delivery." Nothing about quirky t-shirts there. By searching through the site, I can see other CNN merchandise available for sale, from a "Situation Room" t-shirt to a "Nancy Grace" cap. But none of these really impede on the main mission of CNN.com, so what's the harm with this new direction?

The obvious harm with this strategy is impact to the brand - and it has roots in tracking what works and taking action on those findings. If CNN.com is tracking sales of these headline t-shirts, they'll probably be compiling a top list of best sellers, along with other metrics and KPIs. I'm guessing the best selling shirts won't be driven by much other than the headline itself - something different and creative enough to make people want to throw it on their chest. The possibility exists that if CNN.com discovers that the wackier headlines are generating more sales then the reporters could be pushed to write different stories, or even misleading headlines, in order to push the merchandise out the door. CNN's reporting integrity could suffer as a result.

So before seeing what someone else is having success with on the web  - no matter if it's apparel, message boards, widgets, or Facebook apps  - make sure that it works for your business model and brand. Something that works for The Onion doesn't always work for CNN.com.  Now that would be a good t-shirt.