Jeff Zucker’s leadership helped the network become the dominant name in cable news during Donald Trump’s presidency.
CNN President Jeff Zucker, who helped the news agency make the dominant name in cable news, plans to leave the media organization by the end of the year.
“This organization has gone through a lot. “I would like to be here to bring us all back to a new normal, one that feels much more like it used to be here,” Zucker said in a Thursday call with CNN producers acquired by Variety. ‘As a result, I’m going to stay and complete my current contract, which, as I said, will keep me here until the end of this year. At that point, I do expect to continue. ”
It is unclear who will replace Zucker. A representative of CNN parent company WarnerMedia did not return a request for comment.
Zucker, who joined CNN in 2013, helped catapult the outlet to the top of the cable news contest during Donald Trump’s presidency. CNN broke its viewer records in 2020 and outperformed Fox News in the key age group 25-54 in the fourth quarter. CNN’s rating success continued into the new year: January 2021 was CNN’s most-watched month on record, helped in part by the report’s coverage of the pro-Donald Trump crowd that stormed the US capital on January 6.
CNN was not a force to be reckoned with when Zucker joined the outlet. As CNN’s media correspondent Brian Stelter wrote on Thursday, the news industry was full of stories about CNN’s “identity crisis” in 2013, when Fox News and MSNBC were the best news channels on cable. The appointment of Zucker led to a rediscovery of network coverage and led to several new initiatives, such as various City Hall programs and documentaries. Premium anchors like Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper became just as well-known as Hollywood stars because of their political coverage and commentary, while CNN’s chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta became one of the most recognizable faces of coronavirus coverage during the last year. .
“I do think there was a feeling at CNN that they had to be neutral to the point of fainting, and what I think we as a team instilled was that what you had to do was the truth,” he said. Zucker told the Los Angeles. Times, which announced the news of Zucker’s decision. “We have given the anchors, reporters and producers of our shows the freedom to speak the truth, even though the truth has sometimes become difficult.”
Although CNN thrived during the 2016 presidential election and Trump’s subsequent presidency, the network’s success under Zucker was not without controversy. CNN received criticism during the 2016 presidential election season for broadcasting large numbers of Trump rallies – which were important draws for news channels – without changes or fact-checking. Zucker said it was a mistake to do so in October 2016. Zucker’s relationship with Trump is complicated; Zucker, who previously served as president of NBC Entertainment, lightened Trump’s “The Apprentice” in 2004, significantly raising the national profile of the eventual president. As CNN’s coverage of Trump intensified, the outlet became one of Trump’s main targets in his regular protests against the media during his presidency.
CNN, known for its myriad of experts, also received criticism for appointing former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as a political commentator three days after he was fired from Trump’s election campaign; Lewandowski resigned several months later. CNN’s appointment of Sarah Isgur, who served as spokeswoman for former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, as political editor in 2019, has caused similar controversy and her role has quickly changed to political analyst.
The controversies aside, Zucker’s leadership has achieved CNN’s record and financial gain and it’s unclear how his departure will affect the media organization.
Zucker’s exit was expected; The Wall Street Journal reported in October 2020 that the CNN president was considering leaving the network shortly after the 2020 election, despite his contract expiring at the end of 2021. The Journal’s report suggested that Zucker was “blinded” by restructuring at WarnerMedia, which was acquired by AT&T in 2018 and had a “friction” with WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar. Zucker is one of the few executives of WarnerMedia who has stayed with the company since acquiring AT&T.
Although CNN entered 2021 as the leader in cable news ratings, cable television continues to grow in popularity as more consumers switch to streaming services. WarnerMedia has invested heavily in its HBO Max streaming service, which launched in May 2020, but the service has been slow to gain a foothold and industry analysts have partly blamed the failures on WarnerMedia’s major wave of redundancies that took several months ago set. The Los Angeles Times reports that Zucker is worried that CNN could become a target for cost savings.
Although news programming is largely untested on leading streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Disney +, newer services like NBCUniversal’s Peacock and HBO Max are working on the genre; a handful of CNN brands and movies are available on the latter service. The New York Times report on Zucker’s decision to retire contains a remark that a streaming service from CNN is under development, but no details about the platform have been officially released.
Zucker is one of several senior media executives who have announced they want to retire after the 2020 presidential election. Former MSNBC president Phil Griffin was succeeded by Rashida Jones on February 1, while Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron and ABC News president James Goldston recently announced their intention to retire later this year. .
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