NEW YORK (AP) — A former chief executive of the BBC and The New York Times who says he sees opportunity in times of disruption was chosen Wednesday to lead CNN, which has burned through two leaders and bled viewers over the past two years.
Mark Thompson was appointed as CNN’s new chair and CEO by the network’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. Thompson will replace Chris Licht, who was fired in June, and a four-person team that had been running CNN in the interim, when he takes over Oct. 9.
Thompson, who left the Times in 2020 after eight years as that company’s president and CEO, is credited with helping the newspaper transition to a digital-first organization more dependent on paid subscribers than the collapsing advertising market that has doomed many newspapers.
The native of England, who was knighted by the British government this year, was director-general of the BBC from 2004 to 2012.