CNN names former New York Times and BBC boss Mark Thompson as next chief executive

CNN has named former New York Times and BBC boss Mark Thompson as its next chief executive, following the chaotic tenure of Chris Licht.

The cable network announced the appointment on Wednesday in a statement by David Zaslav, the CEO of CNN’s parent company Warner Bros Discovery.

In the statement, Mr Zaslav described the former BBC director general as “a true innovator who has transformed for the digital age two of the world’s most respected news organisations”.

“His strategic vision, track record in transformational leadership and sheer passion for news make him a formidable force for CNN and journalism at this pivotal time,” he added.

Mr Thompson, 66, will take over on 9 October.

After first joining the BBC in 1979 as a trainee, Mr Thompson took the helm of the organisation between 2004 and 2012.

After that, he became president and CEO of The New York Times Company from 2012 to 2020.

CNN has been beset by crisis over the last year-and-a-half amid plummeting ratings and profits and a series of scandals.

The leading man of CNN’s primetime lineup, Chris Cuomo, was fired following an ethics inquiry in December 2021 in connection to the sexual harassment allegations against his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The chairman of the network Jeff Zucker was then forced to leave only two months later after he didn’t disclose a relationship with a colleague.

Then, in April last year, days into the life of Warner Bros Discovery, Mr Zaslav and other executives closed down CNN+, the network’s shortlived streaming service.

Yet another longtime star of CNN primetime, Don Lemon, was then ousted from the network earlier this year after coming under fire for comments about GOP presidential candidate and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.

In May, then-boss Mr Licht and the network were criticised for hosting a town hall with former president Donald Trump, with the criticism even coming from CNN International anchor Christiane Amanpour.

Mr Licht left the post in June and the network is still recovering from his departure, with staff morale low,The New York Times notes.

Since his departure, the network has been led by longtime CNN staffers Amy Entelis, Virginia Moseley, Eric Sherling, and David Leavy, an associate of Mr Zaslav.

During the course of the last two months, the quartet has put in place a full-time anchor for CNN’s morning show and completed a lineup for its primetime hours that have been up in the air for over a year.

In Wednesday’s statement, Mr Zaslav thanked the quartet in a note to staff, mentioning the chaos that has surrounded the network over the last year. Warner Bros Discovery said the group would each stay in their current positions under the new leadership of Mr Thompson.

“I want to say that I recognise change is not easy, and I know you’ve been through a lot of it,” Mr Zaslav said in his note to employees.

Mr Thompson massively expanded the digital subscription business of The New York Times to update the company for the digital era. When he joined the paper, a subscriber-only paywall had just been set up. Two years ago, he told a UK outlet that in the early days of his time leading the paper, he faced “scepticism” that it would be possible to grow the number of digital subscribers.

“I just thought we weren’t doing it well enough,” he told thePress Gazette. “And we weren’t doing it smart enough. And we weren’t using data properly.”

Today, more than nine million of The New York Times’ almost 10 million subscribers are digital-only.

CNN is now facing a similar challenge as its 4,000 employees worldwide work to change the company toward a more digital future as the cable business subsides.

Warner Bros Discovery revealed last week that it will introduce a CNN channel on Max next month, the streaming service formerly known as HBO Max.

CNN Max will simulcast shows by Jake Tapper, Wolf Blitzer, and Anderson Cooper.

CNN is currently lagging behind MSNBC and Fox News in viewership, with MSNBC seeing its biggest lead over CNN since February 2020 and with Fox even further ahead.