Success Quote by Jim Walton

Jim Walton’s phrasing is corporate diplomacy doing a lot of quiet work. “Try to create some programs” sounds modest, almost experimental, but it’s really an admission that the old model isn’t holding. The real payload is in “generate viewer interest and appointment viewing” - a throwback term from pre-streaming TV that signals both nostalgia and panic. “Appointment viewing” isn’t just a programming goal; it’s a demand for audience obedience in an era when viewers have been trained to treat schedules as optional. Walton is essentially describing the business problem without naming it: attention has fragmented, ad dollars follow engagement, and a rolling-news channel can’t rely on habit alone.

The subtext is even sharper in the second sentence: “We still will have news on Headline News.” The “still” is doing reputational triage. It anticipates the backlash - the suspicion that “programs” means personality-driven panels, soft features, or the kind of sticky content that keeps people watching without informing them. By promising that news remains, Walton tries to keep the brand’s moral credentials intact while shifting the product toward entertainment logic.

Contextually, this reads like cable’s long pivot from information utility to attention engineering. News becomes an ingredient, not the meal: a baseline service that legitimizes a schedule increasingly designed around retention. Walton’s intent is to reassure investors and viewers at once, translating a blunt strategy - make it more watchable, more sellable - into language that sounds almost public-spirited.