‘Immense change’ is coming to CNN
Big shifts are coming to CNN, according to a post on X from Washington Post media reporter Jeremy Barr.
“Immense change is coming, and I don’t use that lightly,” CNN CEO Mark Thompson reportedly said at an all-bureau CNN meeting in London on Tuesday.
In a year that has already seen numerous layoffs, closures and cuts — at the Los Angeles Times, Business Insider, Condé Nast, National Geographic, NBC News and The Messenger — “immense change” sounds ominous.
CNN last completed a round of layoffs in December 2022, impacting “a couple hundred” employees, including big names such as political analyst Chris Cillizza.
And, last month, Thompson wrote a memo to staff outlining his vision for the cable network to embrace a “true multimedia strategy” to combine all of CNN’s news operations under one umbrella.
We’ll have to wait and see what “immense change” means for CNN. (We know it won’t be a morning show.)
By Annie Aguiar, audience engagement producer
Here’s Jonny!
Jon Stewart is back in his chair as host of “The Daily Show.” Did he ever leave?
He “wasn’t sitting at his desk at Comedy Central for the last nine years, waiting for someone to turn the lights back on. Yet it almost felt that way …” Associated Press media writer David Bauder wrote.
“The GOAT of late night satire is back,” NPR TV critic Eric Deggans wrote.
Stewart opened Monday’s debut show with a 20-minute skewering of Donald Trump and Joe Biden and their struggles to recall details during recent legal battles.
“It turns out, the leading cause of early onset dementia is being deposed,” Stewart joked, pivoting quickly between wisecracks and the trademark sharp criticism that launched him into stardom in his 16-year run as host of the show. He noted that some would say it’s unfair to compare Biden’s gaffes with Trump’s behavior, but that tackling voter concerns is part of the presidential gig. “It's the candidate’s job to assuage concerns,” he said, “not the voter’s job not to mention them.”
“Public figures are served notice that the media’s sharpest bull detector is back on the job,” Bauder wrote.
Stewart will host Monday episodes of “The Daily Show” until the 2024 presidential election.
Before his departure in 2015, Stewart was a massive ratings draw. He inspired an entire genre of crisp, late-night political commentary. Will his return performance do the same?
“With luck, Stewart’s appeal to The Daily Show's old school fans will bring better ratings on (Comedy Central), but it’s still likely to be a smaller crowd than he once commanded,” Deggans wrote. “Regardless, last night’s program shows Stewart's still got the comedy chops and incisive ideas to power the show at least through the presidential election in November.”
By Ren LaForme, managing editor
A bold election prediction: Biden wins!
Even before the well-meaning-forgetful-elderly-man stuff, Democrats and left-leaning media have been looking gloomily at tea leaves suggesting that Donald Trump has Joe Biden outflanked politically. So here is a cheer-up alternative view for them from the economic forecasting unit at Moody’s Analytics: It’ll be a “nail-biter,” but Biden will prevail, says the ratings service’s chief economist, Mark Zandi, and his associates. Rising household income and easing gas prices are among the factors they argue will break in Biden’s favor.
By Rick Edmonds, media business analyst
Media tidbits and links
- The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin with “Paramount Lays Off Hundreds of Workers.” Wall Street Journal’s Isabella Simonetti reported that those layoffs include “roughly 20 people” at CBS News, some of whom were based in its D.C. bureau.
- Most newspapers are cutting back their print products. The Deseret News in Utah launched a new one in September. It has been profitable since October. For more, read Poynter’s Angela Fu with “One Utah paper is making money with a novel idea: print.”
- George Santos was expelled from Congress in December, but it seems he wasn’t ready to step out of the limelight. For a cool $250, he’ll make you a custom video on Cameo. Slate’s Scott Nover with “Welcome to the Creator Economy, George Santos!”
- Press Forward, the initiative that plans to inject $500 million into local news, announced that Dale R. Anglin has been named the inaugural director. Anglin is a vice president at the Cleveland Foundation, where she led the effort to invest in a regional network of nonprofit journalism initiatives, including Documenters Cleveland and Signal Ohio. Here’s a Q&A about Anglin’s career and how she plans to approach her role at Press Forward.
- The New York Amsterdam News, one of America’s oldest Black newspapers, has hired journalist and author Aaron Foley as news editor. A Detroit native, Foley comes to AmNews from the PBS NewsHour. He was previously the first director of CUNY’s Black Media Initiative at the Center for Community Media at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.
- The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, Nicole Auerbach, Stewart Mandel and Chris Vannini with “College Football Playoff, ESPN agree to 6-year extension worth $1.3 billion per year: Sources.”
- The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum with “Who Speaks for the President? Depends on Whom You Ask.”
- NPR’s Rachel Treisman with “Grover the Muppet says he's a reporter. Not for long, joke his beleaguered peers.”
More resources for journalists
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].
