On Wednesday morning, not-quite-new CNN chairman and C.E.O. Mark Thompson tried to patch into his network’s 9 a.m. all-hands call from an offsite location to share some news. But, alas, he failed to establish a strong connection and only came into spotty service about 20 minutes later, while driving through a mountain range. From there, in garbled transmission, Thompson informed the staff what I had reported last night: that CNN’s chief digital officer, Athan Stephanopoulos, would be stepping down. Thompson had recently conveyed the news to the network’s digital leadership team ahead of the all-hands. 

Thompson cited differences of strategic vision with Stephanopoulos, etcetera, but in practice he was just clearing the way to bring in his own, hand-selected lieutenant to help lead CNN’s transformation from a linear television brand into a multiplatform, digital-first business. Not everything Thompson said on the call was entirely clear, but this bit sure was: Going forward, CNN, the 44-year-old, once-trailblazing 24/7 TV network, would now need to think of itself as an entirely digital organization.