CNN staffers are cautiously optimistic about their incoming boss, a veteran of two of the most muscular and renowned newsrooms in the world.

The network announced Wednesday that Mark Thompson, the former CEO of the New York Times and director general of the BBC, will be the next CEO and chairman of CNN Worldwide. He will act, according to a press release, as the network’s global editor-in-chief, overseeing CNN’s vast international army of 4,000 employees.

David Zaslav, the CEO of CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, settled on Thompson to replace the current leadership of CNN, a group of four executives — known internally as “the quad” — who have been running the network on an interim basis since the abrupt firing of former CEO Chris Licht.

The appointment comes at a truly precarious time in the history of the first cable news network, which has endured several years of layoffs, disappointing ratings, and bad headlines that ultimately brought morale down to historic lows under the stewardship of Licht, the producer wunderkind who was hired by Zaslav to replace Jeff Zucker.

CNN sources who spoke with Mediaite about the new boss expressed some hope in the future despite the recent turmoil.

“Everyone is just hoping for some stability,” a high-level CNN employee told Mediaite. “Licht was wildly unprepared. Thompson seems to have great credentials.”

“This is the third CNN president in 18 months. That’s not ideal,” one top on-air talent said. “Morale is in the shitter. People are tired of this. It’s bad.”

“But if the business is indeed changing to this brave new world of streaming, digital, [Thompson] does have experience in that area,” they added, before expressing reservations that Zaslav’s mandate for the network — to adopt a more centrist approach than the Zucker era — remains in place.

“There are a lot of unknowns,” they said. “What is David Zaslav up to? We don’t know the answer to that. There’s like five people on this earth who know the answer to that. The proof will be in the pudding.”

Another CNN insider expressed excitement about the hire, telling Mediaite: “Good to have a journalist at the helm, and one with some success at turning an outlet around. Things can only get better, one hopes.”

“I’d imagine and hope that the changes are less ideological and more programming related,” they added.

Thompson, who starts the gig in October, will have to contend with not only bad morale, but also a ratings crisis. The network has yet to recapture the prime time audience it boasted when Chris Cuomo helmed the 9 p.m. hour before he was fired in 2021. Earlier this month, CNN debuted a new prime time lineup, with rising star Kaitlan Collins as its centerpiece. It remains to be seen whether the new schedule can build an audience, but for now CNN regularly loses out to Fox News and CNN on major news nights.

“We have a boring problem. And that’s a ratings problem,” the on-air talent said. “You want to foster an environment where there’s more risk-taking. And that will make the network more interesting.”

It will be up to Thompson to guide the network’s new programming slate through the upcoming presidential election campaign. CNN insiders suggested to Mediaite he should do so quietly. After all, CNN fired Licht in June in the wake of a devastating profile in The Atlantic that cast him as out-of-touch with the newsroom and overly critical of CNN’s coverage of the Trump era. Zaslav finally decided to oust his hand-picked leader after that profile, which came amid rock-bottom ratings and even lower morale.

“If I were them, I would hide Mark Thompson from the press,” the on-air CNN talent advised.

The post ‘Things Can Only Get Better’: Wary CNN Staffers Brace For New CEO With Cautious Optimism first appeared on Mediaite.

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