CNN's Licht Opts Mainly For Network Vets For Leadership Team
- by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, July 21, 2022
New CNN CEO Chris Licht has rounded out his executive team.
Licht, who since becoming CNN's chief in May has declared his intention to shift CNN away from opinion and toward more hard news, has chosen to rely mostly on CNN veterans rather than shake up the organization.
Licht announced the personnel news in a memo to staff on Wednesday.
Virginia Moseley, previously senior vice president of newsgathering in the U.S., has been promoted to executive vice president of U.S.-based editorial.
The new post expands her role beyond CNN’s U.S. news bureaus and Washington news operations, to encompass all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s U.S. TV and digital operations.
Moseley, who will be based in New York, is married to Tom Nides, currently serving as the U.S. ambassador to Israel.
New hires include Washington Post veteran Kristine Coratti Kelly as executive vice president and head of global communications, in charge of brand strategy, creative marketing, events and brand initiatives, media relations and internal and external communications.
That role has been vacant since Allison Gollust left CNN’s CMO post in the wake of the controversy surrounding the ouster of CNN anchor Chris Cuomo early this year.
In addition, Chris Marlin, a friend of Licht’s, will lead strategy and business operations, with emphasis on identifying and optimizing new revenue opportunities.
Michael Bass will continue as executive vice president programming; Amy Entelis as executive vice president of talent and content development; and Ken Jautz as executive vice president of news.
“With this strong team now in place, the real work begins,” Licht wrote in the memo. “I have no doubt that these leaders will individually and collectively tackle the challenges that lie ahead and create new opportunities for CNN in the ever-evolving media landscape. These key executives will now be developing plans for their leadership teams, and we will share those decisions in the coming months. I am tremendously bullish about the future of CNN and this team — and I’m eager to move forward and roll up our sleeves, together.”
Just my opinion, but haven't they noticed that its the"opinion" shows that are driving cable news ratings and for the most part these are helmed by distinctive personalities that like minded viewers relate to? Of the three major cable news channels CNN has always been the one which is mostly about hard news and that's probably why it has fared so badly in the average minute ratings. Going even more intently in this direction and expecting the same people to execute such a strategy and produce good results---higher average minute ratings---seems like a very dreamy strategy to me.