"The future of CNN is as much about digital as about television, if not more."

With those words, CNN President Jeff Zucker kicked off a press event in Manhattan on Wednesday, where the network unveiled its impending digital makeover. It's a multi-platform effort CNN is planning to spend $15 million on this year.

On the consumer-facing side, CNN will get a new website — a darker, more streamlined version of its current site, which was released in 2009. Gone is the long left-hand column with dozens of linked headlines; the site gives play to a single big story above the fold, both on the homepage and on its section pages, like The Huffington Post's front page.

The bigger the story, the bigger the image or video that accompanies it: Expect really big stories to bleed to the edges of the screen, accompanied by a single headline. The colors of the site will change, too, from darker hues for less urgent stories, to bold reds for something like the Boston Marathon bombing.

Beneath the fold is a "News" heading, followed by beige Pinterest-like boxes of content. Some of these boxes feature lists of stories; others, a single story with a headline, thumbnail and lede. Video clips often take the place of thumbnails, which can be watched without leaving the page.

CNN.com brought in 42 million unique visitors last month in the United States, the network says.

Targeting Mobile's Growth

During the presentation, Zucker and KC Estenson, senior vice president and general manager of CNN.com, respectively, repeatedly emphasized the importance of mobile to CNN's future. "Desktop [traffic] is flat. It's aging," Estenson said. "Mobile growth [is] off the chart."

Estenson presented a slide showing that CNN's mobile web traffic is up 46% over last summer, and up 70% on CNN's apps. Altogether, mobile now accounts for 39% of CNN.com's traffic, most of that from smartphones. "It will be as big as desktop before we know it," Estenson said.

At present, Estenson admitted, CNN doesn't offer the best experience for mobile viewers — a problem the network aims to change with the new website, which features a responsive design that automatically adjusts its proportions to the screen size of the device on which it appears. At its smallest, the site shows stores in a single column, the lead story followed by boxes featuring other stories. Ads, too, appear in the same format across devices.

Revamping the Back End

It's not just the consumer-facing side of CNN.com getting a facelift. Its back end will also be completely reengineered, Zucker and Estenson said.

Now, stories are published first to the homepage, then placed — often with new headlines — on mobile and social feeds. CNN is building a streamlined content API that will allow it to publish across platforms simultaneously. Plans also exist to open up parts to third-party developers to get creative. In addition, CNN is developing what Estenson describes as a "robust tagging system," which will allow the site to serve up related content "without a ton of human interference," for example.

The site will be in private beta until Sept. 30, when it will be introduced to the public. A complete version is expected to debut sometime in November.

Images: CNN