New CNN CEO outlines digital strategy, hints at subscription product – Axios

Mark Thompson will start as chairman and CEO of CNN on Oct. 9. Photographer: Sanjit Das/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Months after being named the new CEO of CNN Worldwide, Mark Thompson on Wednesday unveiled his strategy for bringing the decades-old cable new network for the digital era.
Why it matters: While CNN's linear TV business is still massively profitable, the network's TV revenues face terminal decline as cord-cutting increases.
Details: In a detailed staff memo, Thompson, a former New York Times and BBC executive, said Times and CNN alum Alex MacCallum will lead a team "more single-mindedly focused on developing the products and the subscription and other relationships with users" that will make CNN indispensable to younger audiences.
Thompson also said he plans to create a "multimedia newsroom" that will combine the leadership of CNN's international, domestic and digital news operations.
Between the lines: Thompson didn't offer further details about what those products would look like, but suggested that CNN's strategy must lean more heavily into digital video formats found on social media, over TV, to survive.
Between the lines: CNN's digital strategy has previously been tied to the streaming efforts of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The big picture: Thompson's memo addresses what many at CNN have feared for the past few years: "So far CNN has been slow to respond to the challenge," of digital transformation, he wrote.
Disclosure: The author of this story is a paid contributor for CNN.


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