Report: Zucker to Take Top Post at CNN

Former NBC exec picked to revive slumping network

By Jon Lafayette -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/27/2012 7:53:51 PM

Time Warner is close to naming former NBC executive Jeff Zucker as head of its struggling CNN news network.

CNN's current president, Jim Walton, announced plans to leave the company over the summer and Zucker could be appointed to fill the post in the next few days, according to a story in the New York Times.

Spokesmen for both Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting had no comment on the report.

A former wunderkind executive producer of the Today show who became a senior network executive at NBC, Zucker lost his job as CEO of NBCUniversal when Comcast acquired control of the media company in 2011. With his news background, Zucker's name surfaced when the search for a new CNN leader began. Most recently, Zucker has been executive producer of former Today show colleague Katie Couric's syndicated daytime talk show.

CNN, the first cable news network, has lost its dominant position in the ratings, falling to third place in primetime behind Fox News Channel and MSNBC. While Fox and MSNBC have grown by appealing to the left and right of the political spectrum, CNN has lost traction trying to stay in the middle of the road.

As a business, CNN has grown by being a leader with online and mobile users, but with its ratings sinking to 20-year lows, revenue has declined, intensifying concern at Time Warner.