The latest CNN CEO, Mark Thompson, recently made a concerning announcement about the state of his network. According to the chief executive, CNN is “nowhere near ready for the future” as the landscape of cable television continuously evolves. According to reports, Thompson was embroiled in controversy, allegedly looking the other way as child abuse occurred when he was Director General of the BBC.
Thompson then spoke about the dynamic nature of consumer trends pertaining to the traditional TV industry, claiming the network is not sufficiently preparing itself for the industry’s future. Much of the younger generation has chosen the route of “cord-cutting,” not paying for cable TV and choosing streaming services or other digital means instead. According to the CEO, convention television “can no longer define us,” given the existential threat of rising generations not watching cable.
“For most people under retirement age, the first place they turn for news is their phones, not their TVs. And news players who can’t or won’t respond to that revolution risk losing their audience and their business,” Thompson said. “TV is vital and there’s urgent work to do there, especially as we rebuild prime time. But TV is also too dominant at CNN and digital too marginal,” he continued.
Thompson claimed CNN should adopt a new mission of simply covering the news rather than putting so much emphasis on providing opinionated or interpreted coverage of it. CNN has garnered a reputation as being a left-wing, hyper-politicized new channel.
“And let’s not second guess ourselves or get distracted by complicated arguments about balance or whataboutism or false equivalency. Let’s cover political news proportionately and fairly, but not be frightened of our own shadows,” Thompson added.
Thompson replaces former CEO Chris Licht, who was ousted from the network earlier this year. Under Licht’s tenure, CNN greatly expanded its political-based news coverage. After being fired, Licht said, “This was an exciting but incredibly challenging assignment and I learned a lot over the past 13 months. I’ve been lucky enough to have had a successful, fulfilling career and I look forward to my next chapter. I wish the team at CNN the very best, always.”
In recent years, CNN has faced a ratings disaster, falling behind other competitors such as MSNBC and Fox News. According to a recent report from The American Tribune, CNN hit the lowest ratings the network has sustained in roughly three decades.
According to reports, CNN only managed to draw in 119,000 average prime-time viewers and 88,000 average total day viewers throughout the third quarter of 2023. These statistics are a significant drawback from the previous quarter and the lowest ratings over 30 years.
As Breitbart John Nolte weighed in on the perpetual crisis at CNN, “CNN[LOL] … hit a historic low in the quarter dropping to 119,000 average prime time viewers in the demo and 88,000 average total day demo viewers – the lowest numbers for the network dating back to 1991. For context, those numbers are down from the second quarter of 2023 when CNN[LOL] notched 126,000 prime time demo viewers and 95,000 total day demo viewers.”
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