(l-r) Jim Walton, Dick Parsons and Phil Kent
The Wall Street Journal‘s Keach Hagey looks at CNN’s ratings woes, and provides some new context and information relating to the news channel. Among the revelations: Former Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons allegedly wanted CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton removed from his post.
Also: the current leadership of Time Warner, led by CEO Jeff Bewkes, are not taking CNN’s struggles lying down.
Time Warner’s current CEO, Jeff Bewkes, is “clearly not satisfied” with how CNN is doing and is pushing management of both CNN and Turner “to come up with a plan to restore momentum” of CNN, said a Time Warner spokesman.
“I’ve been here for a long time. And I enjoy what I do, and I compete and I plan to keep doing it for a while,” Mr. Walton said in an interview.
Read the entire WSJ item here.
The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter has more information, including that CNN wants to add an 11 PM program, but that existing programming will likely take top priority.