CNN Plans Expanded Coverage of Technology, Pacific Rim

CNN is using the move of “Moneyline” co-anchor Willow Bay to Los Angeles as an opportunity to expand its West Coast coverage of the “new economy” of high technology, biotechnology and the Pacific Rim.

Bay, who has been co-anchoring CNN’s flagship financial program from New York since summer, is moving to the West Coast with her husband, Robert Iger, newly named president of Walt Disney Co. She’ll begin co-anchoring from Los Angeles late this summer.

In addition, CNNfn, CNN’s sister financial network, will launch a new one-hour weekday program, “The N.E.W. Show” (for New Economy Watch) and will expand its Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle operations covering the topic.

The financial news network, which runs a distant second in ratings to rival CNBC, also announced a series of partnerships with publications including the Industry Standard, Fortune and eCompany Now, a business magazine and Web site being launched in May by Time Inc. and Fortune. Fortune, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner. CNNfn will put studio facilities in the publications’ newsrooms.

“To have the first bicoastal business news program is a terrific plus for us, giving us a chance to look at the centers of growth on the West Coast and Pacific Rim, and the factors driving the new economy,” said Shelby Coffey III, president of CNN Business News and CNNfn.

Coffey, a former editor of The Times, said Bay’s move “is a factor that happily dovetails with something of great interest to me,” although he acknowledged that the expansion of the new economy coverage probably would not have happened as soon had Bay not been moving. She will not be involved in the CNNfn program.

“The N.E.W. Show” will debut in March, airing weekdays from 2 to 3 p.m. (Pacific time). “Moneyline” airs at 3:30 p.m. weekdays and is co-anchored by Stuart Varney, who will remain based in New York.