In an internal memo, Thompson signaled a more aggressive push to achieve the digital transformation of CNN he was hired to carry out as the network’s linear ratings have continued to dwindle.
The network has been “slow to respond to the challenge” of declining linear audiences, he says.
CNN Chief Executive Mark Thompson told staff that the network needs to step up its digital game, saying conventional TV “can no longer define us,” and said its journalists shouldn’t be distracted by debates about balance or false equivalency. Speaking to employees in a video message on Monday, his first official day at CNN, Thompson said he would draw on his earlier experience as CEO of the New York Times to modernize the network.
When former CNN Chief Executive Officer Chris Licht started running the news organization last year, he was given a mission by his boss, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav: change the network’s programming and tone to emphasize news rather than “advocacy” journalism. With Licht now fired, CNN’s incoming CEO, Mark Thompson, has a new mission: everything else.
CNN Throws In The Towel
In replacing Chris Licht with Mark Thompson, David Zaslav lost an opportunity to move the channel back towards straight news. The loss of reasoned debate among people who disagree, yet still respect each other, is the great tragedy of the 21st century. CNN had a chance to build a small bridge over that chasm of partisanship, but the opportunity now seems to be gone.
“I like big challenges, that should be fairly apparent. That might come in the shape of another big executive job,” Thompson once said. “I’m interested in the puzzle of how you help organizations confront the present and the future.”
Thompson, who oversaw a period of growth at The New York Times and the BBC, will lead the network during a pivotal period.
Ex-New York Times CEO and BBC Director General Mark Thompson’s appointment as CNN’s new CEO offers some much-needed good news as the troubled network seeks to turn its ratings declines around and reinvent itself for the digital age, sources say.
The former director-general of the BBC and president and CEO of the New York Times Co. to take the helm of the global news organization.
Mark Thompson, the former chief executive of The New York Times, is expected to take over Warner Bros. Discovery’s cable news business, a person familiar with the matter confirms. WBD is expected to make his hire official this week.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has reportedly made up his mind about who will replace Chris Licht as the next chairman of CNN. Zaslav has been trying to convince former New York Times boss Mark Thompson to take the reins at Hudson Yards, according to the news site Puck.
The former New York Times and BBC chief Mark Thompson is a leading candidate to lead CNN, according to people familiar with the conversations on both sides of the Atlantic. Thompson, who left the Times in 2020 after eight years, is among a group of candidates in the mix for the job, according to three people familiar with the recruiting process.