In his new job as chairman and CEO of
CNN Worldwide, the TV Blog wishes Mark Thompson good luck -- because he's gonna need it.
The hiring of Thompson was heralded this week by Warner Bros. Discovery. Thompson was positioned
in the p.r. material as the savior of The New York Times Co.
NYT’s fortunes were sagging, according to WBD and scores of subsequent news reports, until he came along as CEO in 2012 and,
by all accounts, righted the ship and set it on a course to digital success.
Before coming to NYT, Thompson was director-general (CEO and editor-in-chief) at the BBC for eight years --
2004-12.
He also spent eight years at The Times, leaving in 2020 to become chairman of Ancestry, the genealogy and family-tree company, where he spent the last three years.
Evidently, running big journalism media companies was in his DNA, so he said farewell to Ancestry and hello to the news biz hoping to work a turnaround at CNN.
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“As president and CEO
of The New York Times from 2012-2020, he led the creation of the world's largest and most successful digital business to date, increasing paid digital subscriptions to the Times tenfold
and more than doubling the company's total digital revenues,” said WBD’s press release.
“During his tenure, there were also stand-out innovations in podcasting (The
Daily) and lifestyle and features content (NYT Cooking, NYT Games, Wirecutter),” it said. If “NYT Games” includes Wordle, then hats off to him.
The TV Blog has no
firsthand knowledge sufficient to say if CNN's problems today bear any similarities to the woes of The New York Times in 2012.
But whether they mirror the Times’ woes or
not, here are some of CNN challenges just now.
According to story after story, ratings are moribund with CNN viewership tanking compared to MSNBC and Fox News Channel.
This is problem
No. 1 because it has a direct bearing on making money.
Attempts at turning this situation around have only muddied the waters. The most recent move was a revamp of CNN's prime-time lineup
announced August 14.
These kinds of reshuffles run the risk of confusing viewers -- or in the case of CNN, what's s left of them -- who tune in expecting a certain show at a certain time and
then can't find it.
The new lineup is laid out in the above image -- at 7 Eastern, Erin Burnett (I've heard of her!) and at 8 Eastern, Anderson Cooper (everyone knows him!).
They are
then followed by Kaitlin Collins at 9, Abby Phillip at 10 and Laura Coates at 11. Until the new lineup was announced a few weeks ago, I had never heard of Kaitlin Collins.
Until yesterday, I
can't say I ever knew the names of Abby Phillip and Laura Coates either.
The fact that the TV Blog is unfamiliar with these three and their work should pose no concern to them.
I know that for someone to attain the heights of CNN prime time, they must have something on the ball.
I don't doubt the experience and professionalism of the top news stars at CNN or
anywhere else in TV news.
But herein lies a big challenge area for CNN's incoming CEO. When many people have never heard of your top talent, that's a big problem.
You can either stick
with them for a while, during which time you promote the hell out of them to see they'll gain any traction, or you can shop for news personalities working elsewhere who already have a following and
might be capable of bringing their audiences with them to CNN.
The problem here seems to be: In today's fractured media world, there are no such famous news stars anymore.
In addition,
people don't raid their competitors for high-profile hires anymore either. Those occasional triumphs always made for great stories. Why? Because everyone knew who these people were.
And what
about the nature of TV news generally? Aided and abetted by social media and the partisan ravings of the news channels, today's generation doesn't even know what “news” is.
“The world needs accurate trustworthy news now more than ever and we've never had more ways of meeting that need at home and abroad,” said Thompson in the prepared statement they wrote
for him in the WBD press release.
Sure, the world might “need” accurate, trustworthy news, but does it want it? All signs point to no.