One notable thing about the headlines coming out of CNN in recent weeks is something they don’t include: news about CNN itself.
Since the exit of former chief Chris Licht in June after a tenure marked by tumult and unwanted publicity, the gossip mill around the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed news outlet has ceased its once-dependable roar. There are no leaks about what happened at CNN’s morning editorial meeting, or chatter about how current leaders Amy Entelis, Virginia Moseley and Eric Sherling talk (or don’t) to the staff. There is even less hubbub about David Leavy, the longtime consigliere who was recently installed to oversee business affairs. and is a longtime consigliere to Warner Bros. Discovery honcho David Zaslav,
People familiar with the network say there is a sense of “relief” within its ranks. It won’t last for very long.
To be sure, CNN still has work to do. The network, arguably with one of the best-known brands in the media sector, faces existential challenges. Its audience has plummeted in the wake of the 2020 election, with overall viewership down 11% in the second quarter and the audience most coveted by advertisers — people between 25 and 54 — off 16%, according to Nielsen. That has given MSNBC a new crack at moving ahead. Both networks lag Fox News, but MSNBC has seen an uptick, leaving it tied in the viewership that advertisers like. More daunting, perhaps: After scuttling the subscription-streaming site CNN+, Warner Bros. Discovery has basically left CNN without a holistic strategy for reaching streaming fans, even as CBS News, NBC News, ABC News, Fox News Channel and MSNBC have invested, experimented and, built a flow of business. CNN has placed a handful of current and old series on the company’s Max streaming hub.
If there’s a time to try and turn around CNN’s fortunes, it is now. A looming presidential election, and the run-up to it, is typically the best time for news outlets to increase viewership and advertising. In recent weeks, CNN has tried to cast itself as a dependable place to hear from newsmakers on both sides of the aisle, with Kaitlan Collins quizzing Republicans on her new show in primetime and Jake Tapper on Tuesday offering a pre-taped interview with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, in what is believed to be his first with a mainstream nonpartisan outlet in months.
Yet that mission has been compromised for months by a veritable soap opera. CNN has over the past six years been through more drama than NBC’s 10 p.m. hour has over many decades. The news outlet has figured prominently in the ownership tenures of three publicly-traded entities and has seen two larger-than-life bosses ousted.
Little wonder, then, that the new corporate parent is trying to guide viewers back to a more peaceful time.
During big breaking-news events, whether they have to do with the war in Ukraine or the legal vicissitudes of former President Donald Trump, CNN seems to be revving up the wayback machine. Suddenly, its hours are including more personalities who have been present at the network for years, well before Jeff Zucker, the former CNN chief who pushed the network into new prominence by letting its anchors display more passion and opinion, could order up a new Anthony Bourdain documentary series or wall-to-wall coverage of a damaged cruise ship. Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer, the latter who was taken off of midterms election coverage last year in favor of more time for Jake Tapper, are back in a big way during such moments. Even Christiane Amanpour has been pressed into duty. Meanwhile, Dana Bash, the longtime political correspondent who has been with CNN since graduating college, has been given her own weekday program.
There are other issues to solve. CNN needs to solidify its morning team. Poppy Harlow, the last of a trio previously assigned to the wake-up slot, has been holding forth with a rotating array of co-anchors for weeks. One candidate who might join her, according to people familiar with the matter, is Phil Mattingly, the White House correspondent who has surfaced many times as Harlow’s partner on-air. He has also been working on the morning program while Harlow has been on vacation.
And the network is still pondering what to do with its primetime lineup. Yes, Kaitlan Collins was recently made the official anchor at 9 p.m., but executives are still mulling options for 10 and 11. Abby Phillip has recently made appearances in the 10 p.m. slot, and Laura Coates, the chief legal correspondent who had been anchoring the hour earlier in the years, is said to still be in the mix. Alisyn Camerota has been holding down 11, and John Berman, the versatile host who has anchored mornings and filled in for Anderson Cooper, is also said to be a candidate for the hour.
If CNN can figure it all out without the public displays of hand-wringing that have been so much a part of its recent existence, executives would probably be thrilled. Of course, there are very real reasons for CNN employees and bosses to wring their hands, and Warner Bros. Discovery will need to go public with solutions in the not-too-distant future.
