Mark Thompson to CNN: Former BBC and New York Times chief takes over at US information broadcaster

Mark Thompson, the previous boss of the BBC and New York Times, has been appointed the brand new chief govt of CNN.

Mr Thompson, 66, succeeds Chris Licht, who stepped down in June after a turbulent 12 months on the helm of the US information channel.

David Zaslav, CEO of CNN’s mum or dad firm, Warner Bros Discovery, mentioned in an announcement on Wednesday: “Mark is a true innovator who has transformed for the digital age two of the world’s most respected news organisations.”

Warner will activity Mr Thompson, the brand new chair and CEO of CNN Worldwide, with reviving a community battling falling scores and earnings.

In his eight-year spell because the CEO of the New York Times, Mr Thompson oversaw a close to five-fold development in its share value by specializing in digital subscriptions.

When he was appointed to guide The Times in 2012, the newspaper had fewer than a million digital-only subscribers.

By the time he left in 2020, it had greater than 5 million digital subscriptions, CNN mentioned on its web site.

He additionally led the BBC as director-general between 2004 and 2012.

A giant focus space for Mr Thompson in his new job is prone to be the not too long ago introduced round the clock information service known as CNN Max, which will likely be accessible on Warner Bros Discovery’s streaming platform.

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CNN Max is seeking to take advantage of the immediacy of breaking information and evaluation, separating it from CNN+, which featured life-style programmes.

The information community’s scores have been sagging and its earnings fell underneath $1bn (£787,000) in 2022. That determine is anticipated to be modestly larger this 12 months than final, at $938.6m (£740m), in line with knowledge from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

During June, CNN’s viewers lagged behind Fox News and MSNBC in prime time and throughout the overall day, in line with knowledge from Nielsen.

Mr Licht’s quick interval in cost included a divisive city corridor discussion board with former US President Donald Trump and the
shutdown of the CNN+ streaming service simply weeks after its launch.

Mr Licht was previously a TV producer who had labored on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.