http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-27/cnn-president-jim-walton-stepping-down-from-cable-news-channel
Bloomberg News
CNN President Jim Walton Resigns
By Edmund Lee on July 27, 2012
CNN President Jim Walton, who presided over the once-dominant cable-news business as it lost viewers to Fox News, will resign after almost a decade in the job, saying the network needs “new thinking.”
Phil Kent, chief executive officer of CNN parent Turner Broadcasting, will lead the search for a replacement, according to a statement from the company, which is owned by Time Warner Inc. (TWX) (TWX) Walton, who has spent his entire 30-year career at CNN, plans to step down at the end of the year.
“CNN needs new thinking,” Walton said in a memo to staff. “That starts with a new leader who brings a different perspective, different experiences and a new plan, one who will build on our great foundation and will commit to seeing it through.”
CNN is suffering through a ratings slump, with prime-time viewership dropping 8 percent to 627,000 on average this season through mid-May, compared with a year earlier, according to Nielsen. CNN now ranks far behind News Corp. (NWSA) (NWSA)’s Fox News, which drew an average prime-time viewership of 1.85 million in the same period.
Walton, 54, started at CNN in December 1981, one year after it was founded by billionaire Ted Turner. Walton helped build the nascent network into a dominant news organization, and CNN soon became a staple in many households. It was the only news company that broadcast live video feeds of the first Gulf War from inside Iraq.
Supreme Court
In recent years, the network struggled to find a formula that connected with viewers. It also made a major gaffe last month, reporting incorrectly that the U.S. Supreme Court found a central piece of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act to be unconstitutional.
Walton, a native of Bowie, Maryland, graduated from the University of Maryland and started his first job at CNN as a video producer.
“It’s the only place I’ve ever worked,” Walton said in a December interview. “I feel really lucky to have started my career with CNN.”
Shares of New York-based Time Warner, which acquired Turner Broadcasting in 1996, rose 1.5 percent to $38.92 at 1:15 p.m. in New York. The stock had climbed 6.1 percent this year through yesterday.
Don't forget the protest recently by Gary Johnson's supporters protesting CNN's systematic exclusion of Gary Johnson from the electoral process. First by dropping him from the polls last year when he was polling on par with Cain and higher than Huntsman and Santorum, then when he meets the debate criteria to participate in the debates, CNN suddenly changes its criteria in a way to exclude only Johnson. In December 2011, Candy Crowley interviewed Gary Johnson when he switched parties to the Libertarian party, but since then CNN has had no coverage of Gary Johnson, none at all. Protestors protested in front of CNN's HQ in Atlanta as well as in front of other bureaus and Twitter bombed and swarmed CNN's Facebook pages demanding Gary Johnson be included in its presidential election polls and to stop coverage blackout of Gary Johnson in reporting election news.
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