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Licht’s Big Number

Chris Licht expects to grow CNN’s profitability this year by $150 million, up to $900 million. But how?

Chris Licht’s inaugural year running CNN has involved a confection of headaches, both macroeconomic and small.
Chris Licht’s inaugural year running CNN has involved a confection of headaches, both macroeconomic and small. Photo: Chris Delmas / AFP
Dylan Byers
February 9, 2023

It’s fair to say that Chris Licht, the beleaguered chairman and C.E.O. of CNN, is overdue for a lucky bounce, a fact that even his staunchest supporters would concede. His inaugural year running the network has involved a confection of headaches both macroeconomic and small, inevitable and self-made, marred by a $100-million-plus budget shortfall, mass layoffs and cuts, the nuking of CNN+, internal vexation about his management style, a Jake Tapper primetime snafu and some of the worst ratings in the network’s 42-year-history.