Mark Thompson, the former BBC director general and chief executive of the New York Times, is the new chief executive of CNN, tasked with reviving a US news giant beset by falling ratings and profits.
In a message to staff on Wednesday, David Zaslav, the chief executive of Warner Bros Discovery, CNN’s parent company, said: “Mark has a formidable record, and I have long admired his leadership and ability to inspire organisations to raise their own ambitions and sense of what’s possible – and achieve it.
“I am confident he is exactly the leader we need to take the helm of CNN at this pivotal time.”
The appointment came nearly three months after the departure of the previous chief executive, Chris Licht. His stormy year in charge included the closure of the CNN+ streaming service weeks after launch and the staging of a highly controversial New Hampshire town hall with Donald Trump in May. The former CBS producer quit less than a week after the publication by the Atlantic magazine of a profile, “Inside the meltdown at CNN”, containing numerous embarrassing scenes.
Thompson, 66, has much more top-level experience than Licht. A BBC editor and executive before running Channel 4 between 2002 and 2004, he was director general of the BBC from 2004 to 2012, then chief executive of the New York Times for eight years, stepping down in 2020.
At the BBC, Thompson’s challenges included controversies over prank calls by the comedian Russell Brand and an appearance on the flagship Question Time show by Nick Griffin, the leader of the far-right British National party.
When the Jimmy Savile scandal erupted, over historic sexual abuse by a popular children’s TV presenter, Thompson had already left for the New York Times. He denied hearing rumours about Savile, or knowing about the cancelation of an investigation until after it had happened.
“I had no reason to believe that his conduct was a pressing concern,” Thompson told the New York Times then. “Had I known about the nature of the allegations and the credible allegations that these horrific crimes had taken place during his time at the BBC and in the building at the BBC, I, of course, would have considered them very grave and would have acted very differently.”
The chairman of the BBC Trust, the former cabinet minister Lord Patten, said Thompson’s record was “outstanding”.
At the New York Times, Thompson oversaw a turnaround built on digital readers. On leaving the paper, he told the Guardian: “The process of digital transformation … requires investment. It means being brave. You can’t do it with the old tools and the old body of expertise.
“In terms of trying to find winners, it’s going to be around boldness, around younger audiences and truly embracing digital. The risk is if you think you can just eke it out. That’s not going to work. The economics slowly deteriorate.”
Such words will now resonate at CNN, a global company employing 4,000 staff which has been confronted with declining ratings and profits, scandals involving presenters, high-profile firings and Licht’s very public professional demise.
Staffers might also pick up Thompson’s 2016 book, Enough Said: What’s Gone Wrong With the Language of Politics, which the Guardian called “a blistering flame-thrower about the consequences of the digital revolution”. A year later, speaking to the Guardian after updating the book to cover Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, Thompson was asked about declining trust in mainstream media.
“The media’s job is to challenge,” he said. “But the tipping of a proper, tough-minded challenge into Pavlovian cynicism is, I think, part of the issue.
“The irony is, although the self-image of the media has been that we don’t trust any of the politicians, it’s become clear, both in the UK and the US, that many members of the public regard the politicians and the media as members of the same elite, the same club, and the frantic attempts of the media to distance themselves from the politicians have been ineffective.”
CNN’s pick made a splash in US media circles. Kara Swisher, an influential writer and podcaster, said Thompson was a “stellar choice … smart, funny, knows his way around news, TV” and business.
Alex Weprin, a media writer at the Hollywood Reporter, noted a “very interesting nugget”: that Thompson will “act as editor-in-chief, ultimately responsible for all CNN content” as well as running the business.
Seeking to reassure staffers, Zaslav said: “I want to say that I recognise change is not easy, and I know you’ve been through a lot of it.”
Thompson will start in the role in October. In his own message to staff, he said: “We face pressure from every direction – structural, political, cultural, you name it. Like many other media organisations, CNN has recently felt some of the uncertainty and heartache that comes with all of that. There’s no magic wand that I or anyone else can wield to make this disruption go away.
“But what I can say is that where others see threat, I see opportunity – especially given CNN’s great brand and the strength of its journalism.”
Associated Press contributed to this report
