CNN Founder Ted Turner, Cable News Pioneer, Dies at 87

When CNN launched from Atlanta in 1980, skeptics dismissed the concept of round-the-clock news coverage as financially unviable. Turner proved otherwise, and the network's coverage of major events - including the 1991 Gulf War - established cable news as a primary source of breaking information for millions of viewers. Turner later sold his media properties to Time Warner in 1996 in a deal valued at roughly 7.5 billion dollars, one of the largest media mergers of its era. His conservation work and philanthropy made him one of the largest private landowners in the United States, and his billion-dollar UN pledge in 1997 set a new benchmark for media-world charitable giving.