CNN boss Chris Licht will leave the management of the American news channel, the group announced on Wednesday, after several weeks of unrest in the editorial department, which was struggling with a decline in viewership.
This departure comes at a particularly pivotal time for CNN as the 2024 US presidential campaign begins and elections have traditionally provided a large increase in viewership and revenue for news channels.
Chris Licht took over as head of the United States’ oldest continuous news network in May 2022 after the sudden departure of iconic boss Jeff Zucker, who had not told his executives about his romantic relationship with a CNN executive.
Since then, the 50-year-old has been trying to revive the old lady of the permanent news, whose audience suffers from the competition from conservative rival Fox News, but also from MSNBC, with a more left-wing editorial line.
He has made several changes to the program schedule, so far without success, and attempted some media stunts, most notably the live public broadcast with Donald Trump as a guest in mid-May.
This show was poorly received by some of the public, but also by the editorial staff, who saw it as an unreserved platform for the former president in front of an audience of Republican sympathizers mostly committed to his cause.
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Moreover, the show’s impact on audiences was short-lived, as a few days later CNN fell behind small, conservative Newsmax in the day’s rankings.
Chris Licht’s position was further weakened with the publication of a very lengthy article in The Atlantic magazine last week, which highlighted the clear rift between the front runner and his teams.
CNN chairman and chief executive officer Chris Licht is leaving the network, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter https://t.co/ebbnn8JACF
— CNN (@CNN) June 7, 2023
“The task was not easy, especially at a time of great upheaval and change, and Chris put his heart and soul into it,” said David Zaslav, CEO of CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, in an internal statement seen by AFP. “Unfortunately, things didn’t go the way we hoped and in the end I take responsibility for that,” he added.
The arrival of Chris Licht at CNN marked an era change within the network, which is now part of the new entity Warner Bros. Discovery, a merger of the television group Discovery with its competitor Warner Bros., which also includes the HBO channel and the recently rebranded HBO belong to Max streaming platform.
Discovery boss David Zaslav, who became head of the merged group, imposed cost cuts and more restraint on content spending, marking a breakthrough for Warner Bros.
“I’m neither a fan nor an enemy of Chris Licht, but it’s clear that the chain’s moderators wanted to lose him,” commented moderator Greta Van Susteren, who now participates in the three major American news chains, via Twitter at Newsmax.
“He came after Zucker, who spent big and was responsible for cutting costs (…) and getting CNN back on information instead of taking the partisan approach, which went in the wrong direction,” those said among the moderators who objected, they took on a more editorial and subjective tone, she argued.
The chain stated that Chris Licht’s successor has not yet been selected and that in the meantime, CNN will draw on an interim management team consisting of three vice presidents for editorial affairs already with the group and number two for leading the commercial part.
The New York Times ran a lengthy article on Sunday implying that Jeff Zucker was considering taking command of the chain again.
He founded a media investment company, Redbird IMI, but continues to follow developments at CNN, which he criticizes privately, very closely and, according to the American daily, regularly meets with employees of the chain.