CNN appears to be struggling right now. I say appears to be because the network still did make $750 million dollars last year. I’d love to be struggling financially in that way too. CEO Chris Licht is out after giving way too much access to Tim Alberta, a disastrous decision that led to a devastating must-read profile in the Atlantic that portrayed Licht as isolated, naive, and out of touch with the staff at CNN.
Having gotten my start in the industry at CNN, I still have a lot of fondness for the place. I’ve thought a bit about what works at CNN and what doesn’t. This is a favorite pastime of almost all ex-CNN employees. And I’ve thought about what I would do if I were in Licht’s shoes. Here’s where the caveats come in. I don’t know exactly what I would do until I am actually in that position, which is extremely unlikely, like winning Powerball jackpot odds of unlikely. I have some preliminary thoughts, but you have to actually be in the job to know. I do know that coming in new to a place that has huge personalities and is very well established means showing some humility and flexibility. You can’t come in with sweeping generalizations and pronouncements because the company is complex and sprawling and huge and it’s hard to know it all before you’re really in it. And crucially, you want to put people at ease because a new person in charge inevitably means change which means some discomfort in the workplace.
The other big caveat: I’m very happy in my current day job and have no intentions of leaving that job, so this is more of a thought exercise than anything.
Ok, here are my initial thoughts on what I would do, acknowledging that yes, I am making some assumptions that I warned against making, although I believe these are fairly educated ones, and that I might change my thinking after learning more.
Don’t do shit for like 3-4 months. No layoffs, no sweeping pronouncements. Just say you are listening and learning and you want to avoid coming in with sweeping generalizations because you need to do more reporting on the inside of the network. That immediately helps to put people at ease and lets their guards down a little bit. Also it’s true! People should learn about where they work BEFORE they decide to make big changes. Things are almost always different on the inside.
I would not publicly criticize my predecessors. People tend to like the old guys. It’s both easy and true to just say they did some things that work and some things that I’d like to learn more about before I consider changing them. Chris Licht was only there 13 months, but it’s very likely he also had some worthwhile ideas he was working on. Certainly, Jeff Zucker had good ideas and did some things that worked really well. CNN made a lot of money under him. Going back further, Jim Walton had a lot of great ideas as well. Build on their work instead of cutting them down.
Figure out additional ways to monetize CNN’s assets. CNN makes a ton of money, but yet the company also leaves tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars on the table. CNN doesn’t have a robust events business. CNN has a wealth of talent when it comes to potential moderators and a strong global brand. CNN could make tens of millions on events every year and continue building an audience with global events. Companies still want to be seen associating with CNN, especially with CNN International, which remains a well-respected network.
CNN has one of the most robust tape libraries on the planet with footage of every major and most minor news events of the past 40 years. But the licensing business is relatively small because CNN leadership hasn’t really invested in building it out. What a huge mistake that is! Build up the licensing business to compete with Getty Images. Combine subscriptions with the Warner Music stock library and you’ve got a really compelling licensing package to sell. CNN even has a key advantage over Getty. CNN is shooting news footage every day and doesn’t need to spend extra money to acquire that footage like Getty does. A robust licensing business would bring another revenue stream for CNN, and best of all, one that is largely not dependent on television ratings. And the licensing business means your competitors are essentially your customers.
Get back into streaming, but do it cheaper than CNN+ at first. Start by streaming CNNi in the US since it’s not widely available on cable packages domestically. CNNi is a high quality and globally respected brand because it’s a lot like the old CNN. Stream a simulcast of that for most of your streaming stuff and mix in some on-demand documentary/show programming + highlighting key interviews. Use the old Larry King Live library to fill out on-demand stuff too since some of the historic interviews are very interesting. Andrew Kaczynski and his team have done a great job of mining the library in their reporting. More people there should do that. In the meantime, the company can re-air a lot of old stuff that isn’t as tied to news of the day on the streaming platform as on-demand programming. It’s free content. Why not use it? And as the cable audience continues to shrink, streaming is obviously the future so CNN, which has somehow already been both early (with CNN.com Live) and late (with CNN+) to streaming, better get on it.
On the news front, if CNN wants to go non-partisan, leave breaking news alone as CNN does a great job of that always. But instead focus on a few big themes a year: AI, housing (a huge and yet underreported issue nationally), Labor (productivity, quiet quitting, unions, etc. Lots of angles here!), climate change, etc. When CNN is not doing breaking news, the network can be programming along these themes. There is a lot that CNN and others don’t cover because in general, most outlets are too focused on partisan politics.
Remember Ted Turner’s old mantra: the news is the star. So make sure the things the network is doing is in service of delivering news to the public.
Fire me and give me a GREAT severance package/buyout so I can retire in peace.
I kid, but really, the pay is fantastic. The job also takes years off of a person’s life and makes them a target of public scrutiny and sometimes ridicule and sometimes even threats. It’s largely thankless and has incredible pressure on all sides, especially from the top. That all sucks.
I don’t know Chris Licht, but I know that even if he were perfect at this, the job would still be almost impossible. Failing at it is both an indictment of him and really not at all. It also takes times to do the job and it will involve failing. Jeff Zucker took a while to get his footing and people didn’t like him at first. I know because I was there during that time. He eventually grew profits and still had his share of issues. Comes with the job to some extent. It’s an almost impossible job. But that pay, that would be very tempting.