Receive unfastened CNN News Group updates
We’ll ship you a myFT Daily Digest electronic mail rounding up the newest CNN News Group news each and every morning.
Former BBC and New York Times leader Mark Thompson is in talks for the highest task at CNN, because the bothered news community seems to be to flip round its trade after a tumultuous duration.
Thompson is amongst a number of applicants into consideration, in accordance to an individual accustomed to the subject.
Warner Bros Discovery, the Hollywood conglomerate that owns CNN, HBO and different media and leisure companies, has been looking for a pacesetter for the news channel since ousting Chris Licht in June.
Warner leader government David Zaslav had handpicked Licht, who used to be a revered programmer for MSNBC and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. But Licht’s tenure at CNN used to be riddled with chaos, controversy and group of workers revolts that culminated in an embarrassing article in The Atlantic mag. He lasted handiest 13 months at CNN.
In saying Licht’s go out on June 7, Zaslav advised CNN group of workers that the seek for an everlasting chief used to be “gonna take a while” and “it’s important that things settle down”.
All the massive cable news networks have suffered from declining scores in the previous few years since Donald Trump’s go out from the White House. CNN has fallen to 3rd position in the scores, in the back of opponents Fox News and MSNBC.
On moderate handiest 573,000 other folks watched CNN on any given night in the second one quarter of this yr, down from 1.8mn all over the similar duration in 2020, in accordance to Nielsen figures.
CNN has been in a state of tumult after closing yr’s abrupt go out of Jeff Zucker, its longtime chief who had helped the community succeed in file scores all over Trump’s presidency.
After Zucker’s departure, Zaslav has sought to reposition CNN as a much less “activist” community than it were all over the Trump years, a technique that used to be advocated via John Malone, the cable billionaire and Warner board member.
Thompson used to be the director-general for the BBC between 2004 and 2012, the place he used to be concerned in the improvement of the iPlayer which offered on-demand tv and radio to its UK target audience.
He joined The New York Times as leader government in 2012, the place he advised the newspaper via a virtual transformation ahead of stepping down from the writer in 2020.
CNN has put in a bunch of executives — Amy Entelis, Virginia Moseley and Eric Sherling — to lead the community whilst it searches for an everlasting chief.
Thompson’s talks with CNN had been first reported via Semafor.