CNN President Jeff Zucker is leaving the network at the end of the year

CNN president Jeff Zucker, who helped the news outlet become the dominant name in cable news, plans to leave the media organization at the end of the year.

“This organization has been through a lot. I’d love to be here to get us all back to a new normal, one that feels a lot more like here ever, ”said Zucker in a Thursday interview with CNN producers obtained by Variety. “So as a result, I stay and finish my current contract – which, as I said, will keep me here until the end of this year. At that point I expect to continue. “

It is unclear who will replace Zucker. A representative from CNN parent company WarnerMedia did not return a request for comment.

Zucker, who joined CNN in 2013, helped catapult the outlet to the top of the cable news game during Donald Trump’s presidency. CNN broke its audience records in 2020, outperforming longtime viewer Fox News in the top 25-54 age demographic in the fourth quarter. CNN’s success continued into the New Year: January 2021 was CNN’s most watched month ever, aided in part by the outlet’s coverage of the pro-Donald Trump crowd that stormed the Capitol on January 6.

CNN wasn’t a powerhouse when Zucker got to the outlet. As Brian Stelter, CNN’s chief media correspondent, wrote Thursday, the news industry was rife with stories of CNN’s “identity crisis” in 2013, when Fox News and MSNBC were cable’s main news channels. Zucker’s hiring led to a reinvention of the network’s coverage and resulted in several new initiatives, such as various town hall programs and documentaries. Prime-time anchors such as Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper became as well-known as Hollywood stars for their political coverage and commentary, while CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta has become one of the most recognizable faces of coronavirus coverage last year.

“I really think there was a feeling at CNN that they had to be neutral to the point of being faint, and what I think we learned as a team was that you had to tell the truth,” Zucker told Los Angeles. Times, who broke the news of Zucker’s decision. “We gave the anchors, reporters and producers of our shows the freedom to tell the truth, even when the truth came out so hard at times.”

While CNN thrived during the 2016 presidential election and Trump’s subsequent presidency, the network’s success under Zucker was not without controversy. CNN was criticized during the 2016 presidential election season for broadcasting large numbers of Trump rallies – which had great appeal to news outlets – without editing or fact-checking. Zucker said it was a mistake to do this in October 2016. Zucker’s relationship with Trump is complicated; Zucker, who previously served as president of NBC Entertainment, gave the green light to Trump’s “The Apprentice” in 2004, which significantly raised the national profile of the eventual president. As CNN’s coverage of Trump tightened, the outlet became one of Trump’s main targets in his frequent statements against the media during his presidency.

Known for its countless pundits, CNN has also been criticized for hiring former Trump campaign leader Corey Lewandowski as a political commentator three days after he was fired from Trump’s election campaign; Lewandowski resigned a few months later. CNN’s recruitment of Sarah Isgur, who served as a spokesman for former Attorney General Jeff Sessions as a political editor in 2019, sparked similar controversy and her role was quickly turned into a political analyst.

Controversies aside, Zucker’s leadership has reaped record audience and financial benefits for CNN, and it’s unclear how his departure will affect the media organization.

Zucker’s departure is expected; The Wall Street Journal reported in October 2020 that the CNN president was considering leaving the network shortly after the 2020 election, despite his contract running until the end of 2021. The Journal’s report suggested that Zucker was “blinded” by restructuring at WarnerMedia, which was acquired by AT&T in 2018, and “had friction” with WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar. Zucker is one of the few executives of WarnerMedia to remain with the company after the AT&T acquisition.

Although CNN entered 2021 as the leader of cable news ratings, cable television continues to decline in popularity as more consumers switch to streaming services. WarnerMedia has invested significantly in its HBO Max streaming service, which launched in May 2020, but the service has become sluggish and industry analysts partially blamed the great wave of WarnerMedia layoffs that took place several months ago. The Los Angeles Times reported that Zucker was concerned that CNN could become a target for cost cutting.

While news programming is largely untested on leading streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Disney +, newer services such as NBCUniversal’s Peacock and HBO Max have delved into the genre; a handful of CNN branded series and movies are available on the latter service. The New York Times report on Zucker’s decision to step down included a note that a CNN-branded streaming service is under development, but no details about that platform have been officially announced.

Zucker is one of many high profile media executives who have announced their resignation after the 2020 presidential election. Former MSNBC president Phil Griffin was succeeded by Rashida Jones on Feb. 1, while Washington Post editor-in-chief Marty Baron and ABC News president James Goldston recently announced their intention to step down later this year.

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