Erin Burnett, On 14 Years At CNN

There was a time, years ago, when Erin Burnett was just another New Yorker jogging through Central Park. While winding through the park, she’d catch sight of the digital CNN sign mounted on the side of the Museum of Arts and Design on Columbus Circle and feel her ambition stir. “Maybe one day,” she told herself.

That “day,” in fact, eventually did come around. Exactly 14 years ago, to be exact, with the launch on Oct. 3, 2011, of Erin Burnett OutFront — her 7 p.m. CNN program that’s become a fixture of the network’s primetime lineup through some of the most turbulent years in media.

When she launched OutFront, Burnett was already a familiar face to business news viewers from her years at CNBC where she co-anchored Squawk on the Street and hosted Street Signs. Before moving to CNN, she’s already covered everything from the 2008 financial crisis to oil markets in the Middle East. But leading her own primetime hour? That, of course, would be something completely different.

“They picked this name ‘OutFront’ as our way of saying we want to be out front,” Burnett tells me. “Physically, yes, but also emotionally, empathetically, by asking tough questions. Being ‘out front’ means exposing yourself in a human way.

“It’s not just being unafraid to ask questions or go places, but also to expose yourself and connect in a human way — which is important in the era we’re in now.”

Erin Burnett’s 14 years leading ‘OutFront’ on CNN

Fourteen years might not sound like a particularly long stretch of time in the scheme of things, but some context might help underscore just how much time has passed between then and now. Consider: 2011 was the same year that Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden. The iPad was just one year old when Burnett debuted on CNN (and, speaking of Apple, 2011 was also the year Steve Jobs died). In terms of pop culture, 2011 also saw the debut of Game of Thrones on HBO.

Suffice it to say: Burnett has sustained the kind of longevity that’s increasingly rare in broadcast journalism — well, in journalism, period.

“We live in a world with more choices than ever for how people consume information,” she says. “That’s not all bad, but it makes trust and consistency more important.

“Legacy isn’t a bad word. A legacy means being there when people need you — having that reputation for fact-checking and gravity. That’s something to be proud of. When people have a collective need to experience something together — whether it’s tragedy or a beautiful moment — brands like CNN can still provide that.”

All that said, the 14-year milestone is also as personal as it is a professional one for her. “I got engaged the summer I came here. Getting married, having my children, raising them — it’s all happened here.” And parenthood, no surprise, has impacted her journalism. For one thing: “Being a parent makes the stories I cover more tangible, more raw.”

Over the years, Erin Burnett OutFront has covered everything from the Paris terror attack in 2015 to Hurricane Sandy, President Trump’s trade battles, and the war in Ukraine — the latter of which, she tells me, “has been very core to who we are.”

Burnett, in fact, was in Ukraine when Russia invaded in February 2022, and she also secured an interview the following year with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. During their conversation in Odessa, which took place outdoors, the president at one point marveled about the sound of the birds he could hear around him. “I can’t remember the last time I heard birds,” remarked Zelenskyy, who’d spent months surrounded by bodyguards, avoiding Russian assassination attempts, and visiting troops on the battlefield.

For Burnett, that moment — of the Ukrainian leader appreciating the simple pleasure of birdsong — “has always stayed with me.”

For as far as she’s come, meanwhile, it must also unfortunately be pointed out that the cable news landscape today is nothing like what it was back in 2011. Cord-cutting and streaming platforms have siphoned off millions of viewers — and the audience that’s left is not only more fragmented and polarized than ever. It’s also one that’s fast losing trust in traditional media.

CNN is also reckoning with its own particular kind of turbulence. The past decade has seen more than one ownership change at the network, and a third may be just around the corner. CEO David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance is said to be preparing a bid for the parent company of CNN, backed by the considerable fortune of his father (Oracle founder and chairman Larry Ellison). Burnett stresses to me, though, that some things change – but there’s also plenty that doesn’t.

“The industry is in seismic change, but what matters most is who you go through it with,” she says. “I love who I work with every day. Our core team has been there since the beginning… There’s something really powerful in having created something with people, and then being able to grow into it and fill the spaces together.

“We truly are friends, and we’ve been through so much in life together. That trust, that shared history — it matters so much.”