CNN announced Wednesday that Chairman and CEO Chris Licht is leaving the media conglomerate after a tumultuous year at the company. CNN, which is looking for replacements, will be led by three CNN veterans. Amy Entelis, Executive Vice President, Talent and Content Development; Virginia Moseley, Executive Vice President, Editorial; and Eric Schering, Executive Vice President, US Programming. .
CNN, like other major news organizations in the United States, is a female-led organization, with two-thirds of its leadership women. All major network presidents are women. Kimberly Godwin runs ABC News, Rashida Jones runs MSNBC, Rebecca Blumenstein runs NBC News, Wendy McMahon runs CBS News, and Suzanne Scott runs Fox News.
Media trends have changed for a long time. The New York Times has a female CEO (Meredith Kopit Levian) and a female editor-in-chief. Washington Post (Sally Busby), wall street journal (Emma Tucker), Reuters (Alessandra Galloni), McClatchy (Robin Tomlin) And yes, luck (Alison Shontel).
But there is still work to do. A recent University of Oxford study found that only 22% of top editors in the world’s major news organizations are women, even though 40% of journalists in 12 major news markets are women. . US is much better than average. 44% of her top editors here are women. Additionally, for the first time ever, more than 10% of her Fortune 500 companies are run by female CEOs.
The promotion of many women to executive positions—CNN, whose ratings have plummeted recently—is a sign of the glass cliff, or “women executives, whether it’s the age or not, only in impossible circumstances.” It may be a typical example of the phenomenon of being given a top job. In times of crisis, or when failure is almost certain. ”
Executives often see women as the right choice to clean up the chaos in their offices, but they’re not suited for good times, writes Emma Hinchliffe. of fortune The broadsheet comes in April after Bed Bath & Beyond replaced outgoing CEO Mark Tritton with director Sue Gove. During Tritton’s three years at the helm of the retail giant, the company’s stock plummeted nearly 50%. Six months after Mr. Gove took over, the household goods chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Gove is not the only high-profile example of the glass cliff phenomenon. Hinchliff pointed to Marissa Mayer’s tenure at Yahoo, Jill Soltau’s JC Penney, and Hayward Donigan’s Rite Aid tenure.
CNN doesn’t yet know if Entelis will formally take over (sources say it’s likely), but if she does, she’ll take over a significant amount of crisis management duties. . In an internal statement to CNN employees, David Zaslav, CEO of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, said, “We have great faith in this group and will fully commit to it until a new CEO is appointed. I will support you,” he said. “We are in a good position to spend the necessary time thoughtfully and thoroughly searching for a new leader.”
