They've had quite a time figuring out what to do with the CNN electronic billboard, the replacement for the Biography sign at Columbus Circle.

As I previously noted, the Biography sign was effective by being simple: clear block letters communicated the time and temperature, the forecast, and that night's "Biography" subject.

The CNN billboard still can't get it right. First, they tried all kinds of animation of oddly pixelized characters like Anderson Cooper. You couldn't make out what the billboard said at all.

Then, a few weeks later, they tried adding the time and temperature to the rotation. The one problem: they chose red lettering on a red background. Now, I'm not a graphic design expert, but it seems to me that red on red isn't the best choice for readability.

They changed the animated graphics to be more concise phrases, like "reliable" and "trustworthy." (Those may not have been the exact words, but you get the idea.) So when you were darting down Broadway and wanted to look up at something, you'd only learn that CNN was "trustworthy." In other words, they chose global branding keywords instead of useful information.

Now there is yet another iteration. The time and temperature (now white letters on a red background) appear on a horizontally split screen, with the bottom third of the screen showing a news crawl. There's one problem: the letters in this news crawl are around 3 inches tall. Forget reading it from Lincoln Center-- you have to squint from the north end of Columbus Circle itself.

Oh, and one other thing: the temperature is wrong. It has consistently been 7-10 degrees too low. Where is their sensor, in the Whole Foods frozen foods section?

I love this. Biography got it just right and didn't try to be fancy, understanding the way readers interacted with the electronic billboard. CNN has completely missed the point of this valuable communication space. It's only a matter of time until they try something new yet again.