In a way, she says, CNN's biggest challenge is just dealing with its maturity. The cable news outfit started out in the media business as a brash, risk-taking upstart that lost money for Turner Broadcasting; today, it's a solid corporate citizen. She wonders if CNN is willing to take big gambles again. Are they willing to lose big sums in a high-stakes game of revamping a successful strategy?

As far as losing big sums go, probably not. One of Walton's four measures of success at CNN is that old public-company mantra: building shareholder value. After all, CNN is now part of a public company, Time Warner. Like most companies with successful brands, CNN plans to take its business into new markets, in an appropriately slow, corporate fashion. In some countries it plans to start local-language news networks instead of delivering English-language news. Just where we'll see CNN offspring next, Walton won't say, but the company is "in discussions in a few places" and expects them to bear fruit by 2007.

But CNN may be edging out on the branch at the same time. CNN Headline News has broken away from its format during prime time in favor of Klein's baby, storytelling. Soon, a full spectrum of programming will be delivered via broadband, for viewers who like their news interactive and on the computer. If Walton fears this might cannibalize those news-on-demand viewers that boost CNN/U.S.'s numbers, he's not saying.

Set to roll this summer, the broadband initiative sounds compelling as Walton describes it: TV on the computer screen, but completely searchable. Live, but available on demand. Fast-forward to the news you want, rewind and rewatch to make sure you caught Aaron Brown's wordplay. "I think you'll like it," he says.