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CNN CEO Chris Licht confirms he plans to step down after 13 months, following a damning Atlantic profile last week and the Donald Trump town hall in May 2023 — Chris Licht, the embattled CEO of CNN, plans to step down, he confirmed to Axios on Wednesday. Licht has been on the job for 13 months.
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Chris Licht managed CNN anchors poorly and his push to the political center failed, but the fundamental issue is that cable news is in a broad, secular decline — Chris Licht will be stepping down as the CEO and Chairman of CNN. His departure was first reported by Puck News early Wednesday.
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Amy Entelis, one of CNN's four interim leaders, joined in 2012, led the original series and documentary unit, and served on the interim team after Jeff Zucker — - Chris Licht is out as CNN's CEO. Longtime executive Amy Entelis is among those taking over in the interim.
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Variety, Mediaite, Daily Mail, Observer, @raminsetoodeh, @bristei, Al Jazeera, New York Post and IndieWire

CNN has also let go of Chris Licht's top executives, including comms chief Kris Coratti, head of strategic comms Matt Dornic, and chief of staff Devan Cayea — After news dropped on Wednesday morning that CNN's CEO Chris Licht had been fired from the ratings-beleaguered network …
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Adweek, Insider, MediaPost, @sarafischer and Axios

Internal memo: WBD CEO David Zaslav addresses CNN CEO Chris Licht's departure saying, “I take responsibility” and “things did not work out the way we had hoped”
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Brian Steinberg / Variety:
WBD CEO David Zaslav has a history of tearing down and renovating what he considers to be underperforming cable assets, but this strategy might not work for CNN
WBD CEO David Zaslav has a history of tearing down and renovating what he considers to be underperforming cable assets, but this strategy might not work for CNN
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Letter: Fox News tells Tucker Carlson's lawyers he “is in breach” of his contract after he launched his Twitter show; Carlson's lawyers cite the First Amendment — Fox News Wednesday notified Tucker Carlson's lawyers that the former prime-time anchor violated his contract …
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The Wrap, Observer, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Media Matters for America and New York Times
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Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:
Tucker Carlson posts the first episode of his new show, Tucker on Twitter; the episode is just over 10 minutes long and appears to be from his rural Maine home
Tucker Carlson posts the first episode of his new show, Tucker on Twitter; the episode is just over 10 minutes long and appears to be from his rural Maine home
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The Los Angeles Times cuts 74 newsroom jobs, or ~13% of its total staff, including editors, photographers, audio producers, and the audience engagement team — The Los Angeles Times is cutting its newsroom staff, becoming the latest news organization to contract amid economic pressures brought …
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How Twitter, YouTube, and Meta gave up on removing lies about the 2020 US presidential elections, after having briefly banded together to do the right thing — For a time, they fought the good fight — but not any more — I. — On tech platforms these days you can get away with just about anything …

Sources: Amazon plans to launch an ad-supported Prime Video tier and is talking with WBD and Paramount about adding their ad-based tiers to Prime Video Channels — Discussions come as ad buyers have been pushing for more access to premium shows and movies — Amazon is planning to launch …
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Spotify combining Gimlet and Parcast into a single unit signals the company moving away from pricey originals to amateur podcasters and creator partnerships — When Spotify announced yesterday that it would lay off 200 employees from its podcast unit and combine Gimlet and Parcast into a single operation …
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@intelinsider, @askhalid, @askhalid, @tiagodf, New York Times and TechCrunch

Sources: Lloyds puts B.UK, a holding company controlling Telegraph titles and The Spectator, into receivership over the Barclay family owing almost £1B in debt — UK bank to seek sale of media group over almost £1bn in debts owed by Barclay family
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Sources: BuzzFeed is exploring selling Complex Networks, which the outlet acquired when going public in late 2021 for nearly $300M; Complex's revenue has fallen — BuzzFeed is exploring a potential sale of Complex Networks, a digital media firm it acquired when going public in late 2021 …
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The Wrap and @theinformation

Sources: MLS and Apple discussed sharing new Season Pass subscriber revenue with Lionel Messi; on June 6, Apple unveiled a four-part Messi docuseries on TV+ — Major League Soccer and Inter Miami are solidifying details around the potential signing of Argentine superstar Lionel Messi.
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