Warner Bros. Discovery Eyeing Mark Thompson To Take Leadership Of CNN
Mark Thompson, the former CEO of The New York Times Co. and director general of the BBC, is in line to be named the next head of CNN, according to multiple press reports.
Thompson would succeed Chris Licht, whose tenure in the top job at the network ended in June, after the publication of a controversial profile in The Atlantic and amid tumult among the staff. An interim leadership team of four executives — Amy Entelis, Virginia Moseley, Eric Sherling and David Zaslav — has been in charge at the network since then.
Puck first reported that Thompson would be named to the post soon. A spokesperson for the network and for Warner Bros. Discovery did not return calls seeking comment. In recent days staffers have been wondering if Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was about to name a permanent CEO of the network, after earlier reports that Thompson was in the mix.
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Thompson would take charge of the network at time of upheaval across linear television. CNN has seen its audience slide since the last presidential election, and has been eclipsed in viewership by rivals MSNBC and Fox News even in its bread and butter: Major news events.
But Thompson also would be joining the network just as the 2024 presidential race takes off, a campaign that may be like no other given that so much of the coverage will focus on former President Donald Trump’s criminal proceedings.
Thompson would be the third permanent head of the network in the last two years. Jeff Zucker departed abruptly in February, 2022, before Warner Bros. Discovery took control of the network. Zaslav picked Chris Licht, then executive producer of CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, to run the network. Licht, though, was ousted after just over a year in the job, after a tenure that included staff layoffs and other cutbacks.
The four interim leaders, who have come to be known as “the quad,” have implemented an overhaul of the network’s schedule as well as plans to launch CNN Max, a live streaming hub that will be part of Max starting next month. CNN’s future in streaming is a key priority given the decline in linear television.
There had been some expectation that the interim leadership team would remain in place until after the presidential election, but Zaslav had settled on his choice for a permanent leader in recent weeks.
Thompson most recently has been chairman of the board of Ancestry, the genealogy site. In addition to his tenure at The New York Times and eight years as director general of the BBC, he served as chief executive of Channel 4 from 2002 to 2004. He helped transform the Times into a digital news subscription company.
— Jill Goldsmith contributed to this report.
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