Mark Thompson takes the reins in CNN at a hugely sensitive time

No one is ever completely happy in the news business, but the relief was as palpable as relief can get this week after Warner Bros Discovery, the parent company of US news network CNN, confirmed that it was appointing the respected and experienced Mark Thompson as its next leader.

Thompson (66) is best known in the United States as the chief executive of the New York Times Company between in 2012 and 2020 and best known in the UK as the director general of the BBC between 2004 and 2012. From London, he has an Irish connection – his mother was born in Co Mayo and grew up outside Donegal town.

His arrival to CNN, where the chief executive job includes an editor-in-chief function, comes after a chaotic year and a half for the news network. Long-term chief Jeff Zucker resigned in February 2022 after revealing he had failed to disclose a relationship with another senior executive, as required by company policy.

Zucker’s successor Chris Licht lasted only 13 months in the job. His turbulent reign kicked off with the shutdown of streaming service CNN+ after just one month and ended soon after an article in Atlantic magazine revealed he had been aware of the “extra-Trumpy” make-up of the crowd at CNN’s “town hall” event with the former president in May.

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Thompson, who worked his way up the BBC initially through editorial roles on its flagship news programmes, is likely to prove more responsible on the journalism side without pushing CNN into ideological culs-de-sac. His track record also suggests he will be unafraid to make the commercial decisions necessary for CNN, currently third in the cable news ratings behind Fox News and MSNBC, to thrive.

With the presidential election cycle fast gearing up to a potentially messy November 2024 climax, the twin challenges of a fragmented US media market and a polarised political scene will not be straightforward ones for either Thompson or Warner Bros Discovery to navigate, however.

In 2020, shortly after leaving the New York Times, he told The Irish Times that his career had “always felt very serendipitous”, presenting itself as “surprising phone calls where initially you think ‘No, that’s a really bad idea’ and then you end up doing it anyway”.

With any luck, taking up the CNN mantle won’t turn out to be one bad idea too far.