According to The New York Times, the new CNN Events division will put on panels, conferences and meetings, which will feature its hosts and journalists. It will be part of CNN's advertising sales department.
The first event is to be held in New York next week at the Time Warner Center. Dubbed the CNN Inspire Summit, it is sponsored by L'Oreal Paris, which will hand out its Women of Worth awards at the event.
Another upcoming event will focus on small business and be sponsored by UPS. Sponsorships are being sold as part of advertising packages across the television, online and mobile phone channels and CNN has said it will not control the content of events, according to the newspaper.
Greg D'Alba, chief operating officer at the advertising sales and marketing unit of CNN, told the NY Times: "Digital media, over the past year, has extended the relevancy of our television brand. Event marketing is giving us an opportunity to extend the breadth of the brand."
In the UK, CNN is aiming to build its relationship with audiences with a user-generated-content portal called , where people can submit video, audio and written reports of news events.
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