CNN considers former New York Times CEO Sir Mark John Thompson (Aug 2012-July 2020) for top job
7.57pm London / 2.57pm DC
The former New York Times and BBC chief Sir Mark Jon Thompson is a leading candidate to lead CNN.
Thompson, who left the Times in 2020 after 8 years, is among a group of candidates in the mix for the job.
Since the firing of CNN Chairman Christopher Andrew Licht in June, CNN has been led by a triumvirate of veteran network leaders as it struggles for a place in a partisan U.S. cable news environment increasingly dominated by MSNBC and Fox News.
Thompson’s name has not appeared in voluminous published speculation about the top CNN role, but he has obvious qualifications. He arrived at the New York Times at a desperate moment, and led a spectacular turnaround that turned the company into a dominant player in digital news.
But Thompson’s roots are in TV. Like many top television executives, he began his career as a star producer in the 1980s, and in his 30s led prestige U.K. news programs including Newsnight and Panorama.
Thompson, 66, held top programming jobs at the BBC before becoming chief executive of Channel 4 and then Director-General of the BBC, a high-stakes, intensely political job atop a complex public broadcaster.
Thompson was brought on to accelerate the NYT's digital transition and extend its global reach, and in this role he directs strategy and oversees business operations. Thompson invested heavily in the Times' digital products, and has attributed increased autonomy for the digital product teams as "the single biggest reason" for the news outlet's success.
In 2013, he hired Meredith Kopit Levien as chief revenue officer and promoted her to chief operating officer in 2017. In July 2020, he was replaced by Meredith Kopit Levien as CEO and president of the New York Times Company. As of May 2020, the company surpassed 5 million digital-only subscriptions, and 6 million total subscriptions, accounting for nearly sixty per cent of the company's revenue.
Levien was Thompson's first major executive hire, when he made her the Times chief revenue officer four years ago, poaching her from Forbes, where she had been pivotal in building that company's pioneering branded content business. In her four years at the Times, she has transformed its approach to advertising sales, re-skilling and re-training sales staff and moving profoundly to the kind of "consultative selling" model that many publishers talk about, but have been slow to execute.
"With Meredith, I find that things happen and they happen quickly, in repeated cycles," says Thompson, in explaining the promotion. Indeed, internally, her work is well-respected, and she's known as a tough-minded manager and a risk taker.
Thompson has been critical of Google and Facebook. He has said the Times seeks to be a destination and not reliant on the platforms, and hopes to "more reliably turn engagement into a regular revenue stream". In 2018, he gave a speech at the Open Markets Institute in Washington, D.C., in which he described Facebook's policy of labeling political news as ads as "a threat to democracy".
That is to say, Thompson’s credentials as a media turnaround artist and as a manager of giant, high-wire corporate cultures media are unmatched. That experience might make him an attractive choice for Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav after Licht, a star programmer who had not run a giant company, struggled in the role. April 2022, Zaslav oversaw the merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia into Warner Bros. Discovery, and later the re-naming of the streaming service HBO Max into Max.
Friends say there’s no guarantee that Thompson would want the job, which appears likely to feature endless rounds of grim cost-control measures for a slowly declining cable business and an uncertain streaming future.
He’s said to spending time at his home in Maine and enjoying board posts at institutions like the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was knighted by King Charles of England in June. But television, former New York Times colleagues say, is in his blood, and it may be hard for him not to consider the top job at an iconic global company.
In September 2021, it was announced that Thompson would co-chair, with Filipino journalist, editor, Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, the International Fund for Public Interest Media.
=========END————
Thank you, as always, for reading. If you have anything like a spark file, or master thought list (spark file sounds so much cooler), let me know how you use it in the comments below.
If you enjoyed this post, please share it.
______________
Professor Hendrik, Professor Eric, and another person, Prof David A. Andelman, former Bureau Chief NYTimes recommended my substack, also some Chief Technology of Financial Times (FT) recommended my substack, not only subscribe. I'd be happy to get more & more PLEDGE and recommendations for better crafted writing (via Bank Central Asia (with my full-name ADI MULIA PRADANA, clearing code 0140119, account number 0201558866 or via STRIPE. For me, prefer Bank Central Asia).
If a friend sent this to you, you could subscribe here 👇. All content is free, and paid subscriptions are voluntary.
——————————————————————————————————
-prada- Adi Mulia Pradana is a Helper. Former adviser (President Indonesia) Jokowi for mapping 2-times election. I used to get paid to catch all these blunders—now I do it for free. Trying to work out what's going on, what happens next. Now figure out and or prevent catastrophic of everything.
(Very rare compliment and initiative pledge, and hopefully more readers more pledges to me. Thank you. My note-live blog about Russia - Ukraine already click-read 6 millions, not counting another note especially Live Update Substack (mostly Live Update Election or massive incident)
=======
Thanks for reading Prada’s Newsletter. I was lured, inspired by someone writer, his post in LinkedIn months ago, “Currently after a routine daily writing newsletter in the last 10 years, my subscriber reaches 100,000. Maybe one of my subscribers is your boss.” After I get followed / subscribed by (literally) prominent AI and prominent Chief Product and Technology of mammoth global media (both: Sir, thank you so much), I try crafting more / better writing.
To get the ones who really appreciate your writing, and now prominent people appreciate my writing, priceless feeling. Prada ungated/no paywall every notes-but thank you for anyone open initiative pledge to me.
(Promoting to more engage in Substack) Seamless to listen to your favorite podcasts on Substack. You can buy a better headset to listen to a podcast here (GST DE352306207).
Listeners on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or Pocket Casts simultaneously. podcasting can transform more of a conversation. Invite listeners to weigh in on episodes directly with you and with each other through discussion threads. At Substack, the process is to build with writers. Podcasts are an amazing feature of the Substack. I wish it had a feature to read the words we have written down without us having to do the speaking. Thanks for reading Prada’s Newsletter.
Wants comfy jogging pants / jogginghose amid scorching summer or (one day) harsh winter like black jogginghose or khaki/beige jogginghose like this? click
Headset and Mic can buy in here, but not including this cat, laptop, and couch / sofa.