The company "will be conducting a wide search, internally and externally, for a new leader."
Chris Licht has stepped down as CEO of CNN, the global news network's parent company Warner Bros. Discovery said Wednesday.
The company "will be conducting a wide search, internally and externally, for a new leader," David Zaslav, Warners Bros. Discovery CEO, told CNN staff in a memo sent Wednesday.
Zaslav praised Licht, a former television producer for MSNBC's Morning Joe and CBS' The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, saying he "has a deep love for journalism."
"This job was never going to be easy, especially at a time of great disruption and transformation, and Chris poured his heart and soul into it," Zaslav said in the email. "Unfortunately, things did not work out the way we had hoped — and ultimately that's on me."
Licht took over CNN just over a year ago, and was tasked with reshaping the network's news coverage to be less partisan and more nuanced than it had been during Donald Trump's presidency. But falling ratings, the abrupt closure of streaming service CNN+ and widespread internal criticism, including over a recent town hall with Trump, scuttled those plans.
Puck News first reported Licht's departure.
This story was originally published by CBS News' Moneywatch on June 7, 2023.
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