The chief executive and chairman of CNN, Chris Licht, is leaving the cable channel after just one eventful year at the helm. Parent company CEO David Zaslav – of Warner Bros. Discovery – informed staff Wednesday morning that “I met with Chris and he will be leaving CNN.”
Licht’s ousting appears to come hot on the heels of an Atlantic exposé in which the executive’s career and actions in the role were uniformly derided. When the article was released, Licht apologized to staffers and said that he didn’t recognize himself in the profile and that he was sorry for disrupting the newsroom’s efforts.
“For a number of reasons things didn’t work out and that’s unfortunate,” Zaslav explained. “It’s really unfortunate. And ultimately that’s on me. And I take full responsibility for that.” “We have great confidence in this group and will fully support them until a new CEO is named,” he said in an emailed statement to CNN staff. “We are in good hands, allowing us to take the time we need to run a thoughtful and thorough search for a new leader.”
