In Defense of Chris Licht’s Tenure At CNN
Issue #104
LEAD STORY
In Defense of Chris Licht’s Tenure At CNN
This week will be an important one for Chris Licht as it will mark the debut of his new morning show CNN This Morning, and kick off what his reimagined CNN will look like moving forward.
Licht has been at the helm of the news organization since the beginning of May, and in that time, he has slowly and quietly made his presence felt at the network.
Some of his notable moves include shutting down CNN Plus, requesting the less frequent use of the “Breaking News” banner, adding John Miller and Dr. Tara Narula, letting go of Jeffery Toobin, Brian Stelter, and John Harwood, and canceling the Jeff Zucker-inspired morning show New Day.
He has been given the mandate by his boss David Zaslav, Warner Bros. Discovery's head honcho, to make CNN more centrist and less combative than during his predecessor, Jeff Zucker’s, reign.
Licht revealed this past week that he had ordered a six-month business review of CNN's operations when he came on board. While he did not reveal those findings of the just concluded review, he indicated where CNN is headed in a follow-up e-mail to CNN employees.
He told his troops that they should brace for some difficult times ahead, which meant “noticeable change to the organization. That by definition is unsettling and will affect people, budgets, and projects.”
Licht let employees know that CNN would stop purchasing documentary films and original TV series produced by third parties and would instead focus on producing them in-house. This move would affect popular shows like Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, Kamau Bell’s United Shades of America, and movies like RBG, Navalny, and the Burning of Black Wall Street.
As a result of this, some employees will undoubtedly be laid off.
As WBD looks for significant belt-tightening across its vast empire, the focus has returned to CNN, and Licht needs to help achieve this goal.
He walked into CNN at a time when many employees were still mourning the loss of Jeff Zucker, who abruptly quit the network in January after failing to disclose his romantic relationship with one of his subordinates.
It seems like many of those employees have not moved on, as their thoughts were included in this hit piece that looked to put a stain on the Licht era.
“They miss Jeff Zucker more today than ever before,” the report said.
Many of these employees from CNN's New York office are not happy that he moved his office from the CNN NY newsroom to the C-suite. This doesn’t take into account that Atlanta employees haven’t had their CEO close to them for over a decade now.
Licht is not only a CNN New York CEO but also the CEO of a global operation, so where his office is shouldn’t really matter.
These employees want him to fight for CNN the same way Zucker did, especially when it comes to the belt-tightening being ordered by Zaslav.
Even they would recognize that’s a losing battle considering cuts are being ordered across all WBD divisions.
Licht's style is a true 180 from the Zucker era, and some of his moves could have been made at a much quicker pace, but it looks like he is learning on the job and is trying to settle into a position that is much larger than what he was accustomed to.
It will be a while before the vast majority of CNN employees warm up to Licht’s vision and the larger WBD mandate, the road for them has been bumpy and will, for the short term, continue to be bumpy as they acclimatize to their new environment.
It would be prudent for them to give Licht a chance and let him enjoy his small wins like the launch of a new morning show.
(Los Angeles Times, CNBC, Puck)
RECAP
Peacock Amasses 15 Million Paid Users
This past week NBCUniversal revealed that its streaming service Peacock has grown to 15 million paid subscribers, adding two million during the third quarter. The addition of paid subscribers comes as welcome news for the streamer that experienced not-so-good news in the second quarter of this year as it didn’t add paid subscribers. The growth in subscribers was primarily attributed to sports as Peacock, during this past quarter, welcomed the Premier League and the NFL back to the fold. The streamer was already showing MLB games, which is an additional boost to its sports arsenal. Peacock also benefited from having all of NBC's current programming exclusively available on its platform and being the home of the daytime drama series Days of Our Lives. (Adweek)
CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz To Call His Final Final Four Next Year
Whether he is calling a football game, basketball game, or golf, when you hear Jim Nantz’s voice, you know you are watching something special. Now one of those sports will soon be Nantzless as the legendary broadcaster will call his final NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament this coming March. Nantz, who has been the lead play-by-play announcer for the tournament for over 30 years, chose to close out his time in 2023 because the Final Four will be on CBS, and the games will be played in Houston, a place close to Nantz’s heart as it was at the University of Houston where his sportscasting career began. Nantz will be replaced by Ian Eagle in 2024, who will call games on CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (formerly Turner Sports). (CNBC, Axios)
Can Netflix Succeed In Gaming?
Netflix has not hidden its ambition to be dominant in the gaming space. Currently, the streamer has 35 games available to download for its subscribers via its mobile app. It aims to get to 50 games by year’s end. Netflix hopes that having games on its platform will help bring in a younger subscriber base and keep existing ones from fleeing, ultimately reducing churn. The streamer, which added 2.4 million subscribers in the third quarter, is in the midst of a mild reinvention after experiencing a brutal first half of 2022. It is launching an ad tier next month and is expected to clamp down on passwords sometime next year. To fuel its gaming enterprise, Netflix has set up a games studio in Finland and will soon set up another in Southern California. It has also acquired smaller studios such as Boss Fight Entertainment, Next Games, and Night School. Netflix is also interested in exploring a cloud-gaming offering that subscribers can access on TVs and PCs. (Los Angeles Times)
QUICK RECAP
BBC News names two editorial leaders for North America. (BBC Media Centre)
Athan Stephanopoulos named CNN's new Chief Digital Officer. (CNN Press Room)
Amanda Terkel joins NBC News from HuffPost as senior politics editor. (Amanda Terkel/Twitter)
Sara Fischer joins CNN as an on-air media contributor. (CNN Press Room)
Former Villanova coach Jay Wright will serve as a CBS Sports studio & game analyst during the college basketball regular season and a studio analyst during March Madness. (Jeff Agrest/Twitter)
CNN International names Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo CNN Newsroom anchors. (CNN Press Room)
Editorial executive Madeleine Haeringer to depart NBC News at the end of the year. (TVNewser)
Martine Croxall was taken off the air at BBC News. (The Guardian)
NewsNation fired Paul Gerke after he questioned the network’s mission. (New York Post)
Amazon Prime's Thursday Night Football bounces back after three-week season lows. (Sports Media Watch)
CNBC ran an inaccurate story about Twitter layoffs. (Talking Biz News)
Why Fox News is focusing on crime. (WNYC Studios)
2022 Midterm Elections: NBC News Group announces its coverage plans. (NBC News PR)
CNBC's Jim Cramer apologizes for his Meta stock recommendation. (Talking Biz News)
Walmart expands its Netflix Hub to over 2400 stores nationwide. (MediaPost)
The 2022 World Series to be streamed on 4K on Fox App, FuboTV, and YouTube TV. (The Streamable)
When Netflix and HBO turned on each other. (Bloomberg)
Amazon Prime's TNF to have an alternate stream featuring LeBron James and The Shop on November 17. (Talking Biz News)
ESPN is not planning on launching its own sportsbook. (Front Office Sports)
Girls5eva moves from Peacock to Netflix. (The Hollywood Reporter)
MLB moves the World Series Sunday game to avoid competing with the NFL. (ProFootball Talk)
NBCUniversal and Wall Street Journal in a war of words over streaming. (MediaPost)
Profile: Fox Business’ Liz Claman on how the network became a business force. (Forbes)
BBC News teams named finalists in British Journalism Awards. (BBC News Press Team/Twitter)
Peacock amasses 15 million paid users. (Adweek)
ESPN is selling its majority stake in the XGames. (MediaPost)
Diversity progress could take a hit as a result of media layoffs. (HuffPost)
DAZN to lay off people in its London office. (Deadline)
Gillette uses mixed reality during ESPN's Monday Night Football. (NewscastStudio)
What is it like to watch Bally Sports Plus for a week? (Awful Announcing)
Disney's CEO, Bob Chapek, wants to blend streaming with its theme parks. (Deadline)
The NFL and college football will soon be battling for TV timeslots. (The Athletic $$$)
Fox Sports’ NFL studio is a massive tech upgrade. (NewscastStudio)
Fox Weather celebrates its first anniversary. (Ian Oliver/Twitter)
For $100 billion, would the NBA embrace streaming? (Front Office Sports)
NFL Films to expand its content production. (The Streamable)
FS1's New York show move to new studio. (NewscastStudio)
How did the Charles Barkley driving the bus illustration come together? (The Athletic $$$)
How did President Obama get on ESPN's “Manningcast.” (Axios)
Apple raises the price of AppleTV Plus. (Variety)
Matt Rivers jumps from CNN to ABC News. (ABC News Public Relations)
What will be the next media mega-merger? (Bloomberg)
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A MarkHenry Media LLC publication - Issue #104 - 2022