Jeff Zucker favourite to become CNN's next president
Washington, Nov 28 (ANI)
Former NBCUniversal chief executive Jeff Zucker has been touted as big favourite to become CNN's next president, according to reports.
Throughout a four-month search process for the person to succeed Jim Walton, the departing president, attention has centered on Zucker, who was replaced when Comcast took over the company last year.
Zucker currently produces Katie Couric's daytime talk show.
Several news executives close to Zucker said this week that they believed he had been chosen to run CNN and expected the appointment to be announced soon.
Zucker's name has been in the running since CNN announced in July that Walton would be stepping down.
In mid-October, media columnist Michael Wolff called Zucker 'the superstar favorite for the job,' and it has been reported earlier that Zucker was in 'advance talks.'
Despite reaping major profits for Turner, its parent company, CNN has struggled terribly in the cable news ratings race.
CNN's problems are manifold, as in addition to the challenges of an increasingly partisan news environment, typified by Fox News and MSNBC, CNN has failed to create successful, personality-driven primetime programming.
Zucker's greatest challenge should he indeed be selected won't be politics, but will be selecting and cultivating compelling personalities.