CNN goes after the new kids in the bloc

They’re not normally even in the same universe, CNN viewers -- median age: 61 -- and the Rock the Vote crowd, the 18- to 24-year-olds whom the nonpartisan nonprofit works to engage in the political process. Still, organizers are hoping they can make the two worlds collide on Tuesday in Boston, in what’s being billed as the first-ever debate among multiple candidates before an audience exclusively made up of young people.

A success would be a win-win, organizers say, putting CNN before a younger audience and giving a prominent platform to youth issues earlier than ever in the campaign cycle.

But how to replicate that “boxers or briefs” magic, the question asked of Bill Clinton in 1992 that for better or worse is entwined with the image of youth and presidential candidates?

Rock the Vote, which in the past has been most closely associated with youth-savvy MTV, is trying to generate interest by holding voter registration contests with a trip to the debate as a prize, and its oh-so-hip Web site is encouraging “watch parties” for the “cool” happening and offering helpful tips for putting them together.

“Did you know that Rock the Vote and CNN are teaming up to co-sponsor a live forum with young voters and the Democratic presidential candidates, on Tuesday November 4th? This is going to be pretty cool,” the sample invitation reads. “People watching can submit text message questions via wireless devices.”

Meanwhile, ads on CNN promoting the debate have featured rock-video-style quick cuts and jittery cameras, yet with just two weeks to go, last week CNN executives were still befuddled as to how, exactly, they would incorporate the promised “wireless” component meant to appeal to the demographic.

And CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, 36, who will moderate the forum, is mulling the fine line between trying to appeal to young viewers and pandering to them. Joking that he might wear “jeans and a jacket” but “I probably won’t be doing leather,” he compared the process to “when your parents take you out to buy cool clothes. You end up coming home with pants that have sequins and weird buttons going down them. You don’t want to set up something you can’t deliver on.”

The forum, preceded by a week of CNN attention to youth issues and a just-released CNN poll on the topic, ended up on CNN largely fortuitously. The network was seeking candidate debates, Rock the Vote wanted to sponsor one, and Jenny Backus, former communications head for the Democratic National Committee, put the two parties together. Although CNN doesn’t automatically appeal to young viewers, putting the debate there is “giving the youth agenda legitimacy, by getting a mainstream network to focus on and highlight their voices,” said Backus, who is a consultant on the program.

Rock the Vote’s strategy this year is “one, to force the candidates to address young voters; two, force the media to address young voters,” and finally, continue its work getting young people to register and vote, said Jehmu Greene, executive director of the organization, founded in 1990. “The partnership with CNN does two of those things: They are a very trusted news source and respected news entity, and this puts the youth vote for the candidates at a much more significant level,” she said, adding that other political media will likely write about the debate, magnifying its impact.

Potential youth voters are already the topic of interest in political circles, having helped fuel candidate Howard Dean’s rapid move to the top of the field of contenders. And as is the case every four years, because they haven’t voted before and their political preferences aren’t known, “young voters are a sleeping giant, theoretically,” said Tom Hannon, CNN’s political director, adding: “The beauty of the thing is that it’s a terrific story.”

CNN isn’t the only news network courting young adults. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, anchor of “Hardball,” in recent weeks has been interviewing Democratic candidates, one at a time, before a student crowd at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. And former Vice President Al Gore is said to be exploring turning the tiny cable channel Newsworld International into a news channel aimed at the under-25 crowd.

Rock the Vote’s move to join forces with CNN shifts attention away from MTV, which sits on the Rock the Vote board and has been the almost exclusive outlet for the nonprofit’s national TV events in recent years. Rock the Vote executives tried to find a way to include Gideon Yago, an MTV correspondent, in the CNN debate, but instead, he is participating in the lead-up to the event.

“If MTV is part of a project, that is the No. 1 way of getting young people to pay attention,” Rock the Vote’s Greene said. Historically, she added, “they’re the leaders in really establishing the youth vote as an important presence in American politics.”

An MTV spokeswoman said the two organizations continue to work closely together, including in an online voter registration campaign, and the two will again collaborate as MTV starts its own campaign coverage in 2004.

At a breakfast in New York last week where CNN was trying to woo advertisers to sponsor its upcoming political year coverage, Cooper, a rising CNN star who anchors “Anderson Cooper 360,” seen here weekdays at 4 p.m., was repeatedly cast as the spokesman for young people’s issues. “It’s flattering, but I think they’re pushing it,” he laughed, noting his age. Nonetheless, he is taking his preparation for the forum seriously, setting a goal of getting the candidates -- eight of whom so far have committed to participating -- beyond the “I believe children are our future” rhetoric. Issues of specific concern to youth came up in just one of the three 2000 debates between Al Gore and George W. Bush, he said, and neither candidate directly answered the question. Cooper, like most debate moderators in recent years, is hopeful he will be the one to get the candidates off their stump speeches.

CNN executives are underplaying the debate’s significance in the broader context of the network’s struggle to forge an identity and loyal audience in the face of aggressive competition from Fox News Channel, the dominant cable news network. “What’s important is the event,” and finding ways to reach young voters, said Princell Hair, the new executive vice president and general manager of CNN. “If, as a byproduct, we attract some younger eyeballs, I’ll take that.” But despite the circumspect words, CNN executives have been salivating ever since the forum was announced earlier this month.

Although Hair said CNN has “no formal strategy” for lowering its median age, drawing a younger viewer is key to advertising sales, and the forum is a prime event for getting a younger audience to at least sample the CNN wares. At CNN’s New York advertiser event, marketing executives were talking privately about how they could extend the tie-ins with Rock the Vote for years to come -- and daydreaming out loud about the soft drink advertisers that could follow.