An individual with information of Zaslav’s pondering stated he misplaced confidence in Licht over time, following a collection of missteps and “self-inflicted wounds.”
Licht had triggered unfavorable headlines and inside backlash final month for his determination to broadcast a dwell “city corridor” that includes Donald Trump that reeled uncontrolled as the previous president’s falsehoods and insults drew cheers from an viewers stacked with GOP followers. But he was additionally fighting the bigger drawback of failing to show round CNN’s cratering rankings. His most high-profile programming determination — a revamped morning present — was a rankings catastrophe that culminated with the firing of longtime anchor Don Lemon.
A brand new chief working officer put in at CNN final week got down to ask the corporate’s high journalists what they considered as CNN’s greatest issues. Many pointed to Licht’s administration.
Inside assist for Licht eroded even additional after the Atlantic revealed a roughly 15,000-word profile final week for which Licht gave in depth entry to reporter Tim Alberta. It quoted him criticizing CNN’s protection of the pandemic, which he appeared to see as overhyped: “It acquired to a spot the place, ‘Oh wow, we gotta maintain getting these rankings. We gotta maintain getting the sense of urgency.’” It additionally described him making questionable decisions in regards to the staging of the Trump city corridor.
Licht apologized to his workers, each in a newsroom assembly Monday, the place he pledged to work to regain their belief, and over the following two days in particular person conversations with the community’s outstanding journalists.
However by then the injury was completed. Zaslav instructed CNN workers Wednesday morning that the corporate is looking “internally and externally” for a brand new chief. Within the interim, CNN will probably be led by a workforce of longtime community executives — Amy Entelis, Virginia Moseley and Eric Sherling — in addition to David Leavy, the Discovery veteran named as CNN’s chief working officer final week.
“I’ve nice respect for Chris, personally and professionally,” Zaslav stated in a press release. “The job of main CNN was by no means going to be simple, particularly at a time of giant disruption and transformation, and he has poured his coronary heart and soul into it.”
In a press release Wednesday, Licht described his time at CNN as “an thrilling however extremely difficult task.”
“I realized rather a lot over the previous 13 months,” he stated. “I’ve been fortunate sufficient to have had a profitable, fulfilling profession and I look ahead to my subsequent chapter.”
The turbulence on the high of CNN comes as tv information networks wrestle to plan a technique to cope with the decline of their conventional cable enterprise at a time when streaming providers have chipped away at their rankings and income. Years of cord-cutting have shrunk the variety of households receiving cable and satellite tv for pc providers — translating to a decline in charges networks gather from cable operators.
Licht was employed final yr to interchange Jeff Zucker, who had led CNN by way of the tumultuous Trump years however was compelled to resign after failing to speak in confidence to the corporate a romantic relationship with a fellow government.
Then an government at CBS, Licht had made his identify as a grasp programmer, serving to form the late-night speak present hosted by Stephen Colbert and overseeing a profitable overhaul of CBS’s morning present. He additionally helped launch MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” whereas at NBC.
He was considered one of Zaslav’s first main hires when the longtime Discovery CEO took over as head of the brand new conglomerate fashioned by the April 2022 merger with CNN’s outdated dad or mum firm, WarnerMedia, and Discovery Inc., the proprietor of a number of cable networks.
Zaslav employed Licht — who had by no means overseen a workers anyplace close to as massive as CNN’s — with out interviewing different candidates, in keeping with an individual with information of the matter however not licensed to remark.
Named as the brand new CNN CEO on the finish of February 2022, Licht had the disagreeable activity of saying Warner Bros. Discovery’s shuttering of CNN Plus, the corporate’s month-old $100 million streaming service, earlier than he had even formally began the job.
In his new position, Licht inherited a workers nonetheless largely loyal to Zucker, who had helped develop the careers of many outstanding on-air stars and awarded beneficiant contracts. He was additionally aligned with Zaslav in his mission of constructing the community a extra palatable discussion board for conservatives, which was underscored when he made some extent of reserving extra Republican company in an effort to recast the community as a centrist discussion board.
Licht despatched ripples of concern by way of the newsroom when he subsequently fired outstanding journalists John Harwood and Brian Stelter, which many noticed as a sign that the brand new CNN would abandon the hard-charging and regularly opinionated tone of the Zucker years. Licht additionally oversaw a spherical of deep layoffs that sapped workers morale and harm his credibility with staff.
He achieved few tangible successes throughout his yr at CNN as rankings reached historic lows, trailing rivals who themselves have been grappling with an general decline in cable-news viewership because the frenetic protection of the Trump White Home gave technique to the quieter Biden period. In 2022, CNN’s common rankings declined by one-third from the earlier yr, averaging 735,000 all through the day; by comparability, Fox Information noticed a dip of 14 p.c and MSNBC declined by 22 p.c. On some nights, upstart right-wing community Newsmax beat CNN in rankings.
Final fall, Licht launched a brand new morning present — his first massive swing at remaking the CNN schedule — that paired veteran journalists Lemon and Poppy Harlow with Kaitlan Collins. The trio “have a real camaraderie that may translate completely to a morning present” Licht instructed The Washington Submit on the time. However the experiment fell flat after Lemon attracted controversy for on-air feedback about ladies in sports activities and politics. Lemon was fired by the community in April.
Licht was sluggish to fill the 9 p.m. slot on the community — historically one of many most-watched hours on tv, however which CNN had left and not using a everlasting host because the firing of Chris Cuomo in December 2021. Final month, he introduced that Collins will take that position.
Hypothesis about Licht’s tenure had lengthy been simmering. In February, the community’s company dad or mum firm started a seek for a chief working officer to assist Licht run the enterprise facet of issues, a transfer seen as an try to bolster oversight on the community.
Leavy, the Zaslav ally appointed to the position, launched a listening tour final week, having candid conversations with high CNN journalists about Licht and what wasn’t working on the firm. In keeping with one anchor who talked to him, staffers raised considerations that the transfer to attraction to extra conservative viewers — each in apply and the way in which it has been publicly offered — had harm CNN’s repute and workers morale.
Leavy additionally heard from staffers who instructed him that CNN’s information protection — the one aspect straight beneath Licht’s purview — was struggling, this particular person stated.
And lots of have been pissed off by the way in which a collection of headline-grabbing, high-level managerial crises over the previous 18 months — together with the compelled departures of Zucker and Cuomo, and the shuttering of CNN Plus — have deflected consideration from their work.
“I wish to speak about our journalism,” anchor Jake Tapper stated Wednesday afternoon. “I would like the protection of CNN to be on our journalism.”
CNN staffers have been surprised by the swiftness of Licht’s firing, although a number of noticed it as trigger for celebration. “All people is relieved, and downright completely happy about this,” stated one staffer.
“Are you able to hear the Champagne popping?” an on-air journalist stated.
However that very same journalist — who like most CNN staffers spoke on the situation of anonymity to protect work relationships — additionally expressed concern. “We’re as soon as once more on this interval of huge uncertainty and now we’re headed right into a marketing campaign cycle and everyone’s one another and questioning, what can we do now?”
Some, although, anticipate a interval of stability with few modifications. “The interim group is aware of CNN higher than anybody,” one on-air character stated.
In his assembly with CNN workers Wednesday, Zaslav was imprecise about why Licht was ousted.
“For a lot of causes, issues didn’t work out. And that’s unlucky. It’s actually unlucky,” Zaslav instructed workers. “And in the end, that’s on me. And I take full duty for that. However now we start a brand new web page.” He additionally reiterated his assist of CNN’s journalism and vowed to make CNN “one of the best model of a worldwide up to date information group on this planet.”
Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief who’s now at George Washington College, speculated that Licht might not have had the requisite journalism and administration expertise essential to run a global “colossus” like CNN.
However he acknowledged the inherent challenges of the job, together with the extreme degree of scrutiny CNN receives and the bigger modifications wracking the cable-TV enterprise. “It’s a really, very troublesome place to make a mistake,” Sesno stated. “You don’t have the house to be taught on the job.”
Will Sommer and Sarah Ellison contributed to this report.