AT&T Plans to Revamp CNN’s Digital Arm

As AT&T Inc. shuffles the executive ranks within its newly-acquired WarnerMedia entertainment empire, CNN is in for a different kind of makeover, according to The Wall Street Journal.

WSJ Graphics

John Stankey, the AT&T executive at the helm of WarnerMedia, is planning to revamp the cable news network’s digital operation, which he believes isn’t reaching its potential and requires more investment in product development and data analytics, according to people familiar with the situation.

Stankey has been steering a reorganization of WarnerMedia that resulted on Feb. 28 in the resignations of Richard Plepler, HBO’s chief executive, and David Levy, the president of Turner, the parent of cable channels CNN, TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network.

Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN Worldwide whose contract runs through 2020, is expected to continue to report to Stankey after AT&T’s restructuring is completed, the people said. He also is likely to oversee Turner Sports, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

CNN faces an intensely competitive TV news landscape. Its audience boomed during the 2016 presidential election cycle, as did other cable news outlets’, but its position has slipped in prime time since then in comparison with rivals Fox News and MSNBC.

Lifting TV viewership, which averaged just over one million in prime time in the most recent quarter, according to Nielsen, isn’t a top priority for Stankey, the people said. He told CNN staff at a recent meeting that he has no intention of getting involved in coverage, one of the people said.

Instead, he is interested in investing in product development at CNN’s digital arm, including its apps, and wants articles to surface to users based on their interests and tastes, one of the people familiar with the situation said. Stankey wants tens of millions of mobile users to be spending in the neighborhood of 10 minutes a day with CNN content.

CNN Digital missed its revenue target at the end of 2017, according to people familiar with its financials, and underwent a round of layoffs in February 2018 as part of a restructuring.

Profits for CNN were $1.2 billion in 2018, according to a person familiar with the matter, the most profitable year for CNN to date.