Effective communication is one of the primary challenges large, geographically distributed companies deal with. It can make the difference between an innovative firm that stays ahead of competitors and one that finds great difficulty in moving quickly and decisively on strategic decisions. For CNN, quick and effective communication is a crucial aspect of delivering accurate, timely news to the global public. Enabling producers and other staff to communicate in an environment with minimal friction when a story breaks means the story will be well developed while also enabling quick turnaround to the airwaves. In CNN’s quest to provide their global news staff with highly effective communication tools, they retained the services of both Tripleoptic and Mindpurge to conceptualize a new intranet portal focused on staff communication. Taking inspiration from web portals such as Netvibes and Pageflakes, CNN Lifeline was designed to give users a wealth of information at a glance and offer a variety of integrated communication tools, such as email access and instant messaging support.