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Lichtology & Ari’s New Reports

Chris Licht, chairman and C.E.O. of CNN.
Chris Licht, chairman and C.E.O. of CNN. Photo: Taylor Hill/WireImage
Dylan Byers
April 7, 2023

It’s been a rollicking week in the media industry, as is always the case these days. On Friday, I got together with my partner Jon Kelly, Puck’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, to exchange notes on the latest personnel moves inside CNN, the tick-tock behind the TKO deal, and the ongoing anxiety at The Washington Post. Our conversation herewith:


Jon Kelly: Dylan, you and I were chatting yesterday in our weekly Thursday one-on-one when you made an interesting observation about CNN. You noted that, nearly a year into his tenure, Chris Licht is starting to pivot. When he arrived at the network, the super producer seemed super focused, almost in an Al Haig kind of way, in demonstrating that he was the C.E.O.: he moved his office out of the newsroom, delegated to his managers much of the programming authority that Jeff Zucker loved, and focused on budgets and strategy and positioning.