That was quick.
New York CNN — Chris Licht, the embattled chief executive and chairman of CNN, whose brief one-year tenure at the network was stained by a series of severe missteps, departed the company on Wednesday.“I met with Chris and he will be leaving CNN,” David Zaslav, the chief executive of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, told CNN employees at the start of the network’s daily editorial meeting.
Licht’s departure capped a tumultuous year for CNN, marked by layoffs, shrinking profits, historically low ratings, the firing of two anchors, and rock-bottom employee morale. The chaos that defined the last year also followed several other gut punches to the organization, including the ouster of previous leader, Jeff Zucker, and shuttering of nascent streaming service CNN+.
Licht, who became network chief last May after most recently leading “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” to much success, saw his tenure dogged by fierce criticism in the press, often the result of leaks from employees around him who never fully trusted his leadership skills or editorial vision.
Source: CNN Chairman and CEO Chris Licht is out after a brief and tumultuous tenure | CNN Business
The biggest reason the man was canned is this:
The final death knell was a devastating 15,000-word profile in The Atlantic that published on Friday. The blistering piece, in which author Tim Alberta spoke to more than 100 CNN employees, called into serious question Licht’s ability to lead the organization into the future.
In the wake of The Atlantic article, Licht attempted to regain his footing. He apologized to staffers and vowed to “fight like hell” to win over the trust of employees.
But it became increasingly clear that Licht’s tenure as the chief executive was not tenable and quickly coming to an end. High-profile anchors and correspondents, in addition the the rank-and-file staff, had hit the wall with Licht. The CNN chief had, in effect, lost the room.
The picture quickly became clear to Zaslav, who installed his top lieutenant, David Leavy, as CNN’s chief operating officer last week. On Wednesday morning, Licht was informed that he was being relieved of his duties as CNN’s top executive, a person familiar with the matter said. The top two leaders of CNN’s communications department, Kris Coratti Kelly and Matt Dornic, as well as Licht’s chief of staff, Devan Cayea, will also depart the company, the person said.
I read the article in the Atlantic and it was clear that Licht was trying to, perhaps a bit too hard; to being CNN back to, at least, the center and also appeal to Conservatives and Republicans. This did not go over well with the employees at CNN. Licht forgot an important rule in Media and that is, know your audience.
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