While CNN is seeking his identity – and has split from his boss Pope who is recovering from delicate surgery – no data for now

He was considered a child prodigy in the television industry. But at CNN, the oldest news channel in the US, Chris Licht only lasted 13 months. Then on Wednesday, his guest appearance as director of the channel, whose programs can be received worldwide, came to an abrupt end. His superior, the boss of the media group Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), announced the replacement of light in a dry statement. “It didn’t work out for a number of reasons and that’s a shame.”said WBD chief David Zaslav on CNN’s morning session.

One of these reasons: Licht, age 51, had lost the trust of his subordinates, the journalists who shape the news channel’s programming. That had to do with the fact that he was tough on his predecessor, Jeff Zucker. Zucker, still popular internally, lightly accused CNN of being “on a mission” during US President Donald Trump’s term (2017-2021) – losing objectivity in its breathless coverage of Trump or the corona pandemic.

So since Licht took office in May 2022, right-wing mouthpieces, which were banned at the latest after the turbulent presidential election in 2020, have had their say on CNN again. Most recently, the news channel even broadcast a program in which Trump himself could spread absurd claims. Moderator Kaitlin Collins contradicted the presidential candidate as best he could. Cheered on by an audience mostly made up of Republicans, Trump defied all objections. “You’re a Bad Person”he told Collins for the cameras.

Such scenes caused internal unrest; and because journalists are often stubborn, criticism of Licht’s leadership style also reached influential reporters. A portrait of the ‘Atlantic’ journalist Tim Alberta, which appeared last Friday, reflected in 15,000 words the impasse the CNN boss found himself in. With his course correction away from the “outrage porn” of the Trump years, the French-Switzerland-born Licht alienated both the mainstream public and his collaborators.

CNN breaks revenue

However, the real problem facing CNN cannot be solved by changing the general manager. This has to do with the business model of news broadcasters, which has been questioned by industry observers.

In a nutshell: CNN does not finance itself primarily through advertising, like German private broadcasters, for example. Rather, the main revenue comes from network operators, who pay fees to include a program like CNN in the package of services. These fees are high; last year, the leading US news networks received about $4 billion. In comparison, advertising revenues in the same period amounted to $ 2.6 billion, according to calculations by the financial services company S&P.

But as the consumer behavior of the American public changes, online streaming becomes more popular and the number of cable-connected households has fallen by nearly 30 million in recent years, CNN, Fox News and the like are coming under pressure. Declining viewing figures and lower income must be compensated in expenditure. The supply and quality of the reporting suffer from the cost-cutting measures, which in turn has a negative effect on customer loyalty.

Even a TV prodigy like Chris Licht couldn’t stop this development.