Former BBC and NYT boss Mark Thompson named CEO and chair of CNN

Thompson said he spent years watching CNN "with a mixture of admiration and envy".

New CNN CEO Mark Thompson — Mark Thompson interview. Picture: Reuters/Ruth Fremson

Mark Thompson, the former BBC director-general and chief executive of The New York Times, has been named the next chairman and CEO of CNN.

Thompson succeeds Chris Licht, whose one-year tenure leading the cable news broadcaster was marked by an attempt to pull it away from what he saw as Trump-era partisanship.

David Zaslav, the chief executive of CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), said he was confident that Thompson “is exactly the leader we need to take the helm of CNN at this pivotal time”.

Bron Maher

@bron_maher

Bron Maher is Press Gazette's senior reporter, covering US and UK media. He joined Press Gazette in November 2021 from Newsguard, a US start-up that reviews how far news sites adhere to journalistic standards.