Welcome to the final week of June! Vladimir Putin exerts control of the information flow in Russia, Fox News unveils its new prime time lineup, The Daily Beast reveals it is no longer for sale, Redditors continue their protest, and "The Flash" plummets during its second week at the box office. But first, the A1. |
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The post-Chris Licht era at CNN is taking shape. In the weeks that have followed the former network chief's dismissal, the news organization has charted an apparent new path forward, one that has begun reversing a number of key decisions made under the previous leadership. Viewers saw the most visible change on Monday when CNN updated the network's on-screen banners that Licht had implemented in the final days before his departure. In place of the more subdued and gaunt font style, executives have once again opted for a more pronounced, weightier text. It is the first step, I'm told, in correcting issues with the on-screen graphics. Like many of the changes Licht pushed through during his brief time at CNN, the banners — which were proclaimed as a clean and fresh look for the channel, but were at times difficult to read — were not well received by network staffers and executives. The graphics package, of course, is small in the grand scheme of things. But the swiftness in which it is being addressed illustrates how quickly executives are moving to fix the assortment of self-inflicted problems ushered in under Licht that have mired the network. More broadly speaking, the changes to the banners are emblematic of how CNN has been approaching the news since Licht's departure. While the former network chief sought to tone down the volume, the emerging iteration of CNN is reporting the news in a bolder, unbridled way. It appears more muscular, confident, and unafraid to speak up. Under Licht, many CNN journalists simply felt restrained as they delivered the news, unsure whether stating the truth on the contentious, politically charged issues that saturate the daily news cycle might land them in hot water. With Licht gone and a new leadership team in place providing the necessary editorial support, that fear is dissipating, resulting in a noticeable change in tone. To be clear, CNN has not reverted entirely back to the style of journalism that it practiced under former network chief Jeff Zucker. The volume has not been turned back up that high. And the new programs that Licht introduced into the lineup, such as "CNN News Central," remain in place, for now. But there have been observable differences in how CNN has most recently approached the news. One such change is the more selective nature of stories it covers on air. Licht relentlessly preached to staffers to "widen the aperture" on stories the network covered on an hourly basis. The approach resulted in programs that were reminiscent of the old Headline News, with shows throwing everything but the kitchen sink at viewers. Viral trending stories and weather forecasts were weaved into show rundowns, put on par with the actual, consequential stories of the day. Without Licht at the helm, CNN has gone back to its roots, choosing instead to focus on the biggest stories of the day. In the last few weeks, CNN has provided viewers with critical wall-to-wall coverage of Donald Trump's arraignment on federal charges in Florida, the Titan submersible tragedy, and the abandoned insurrection in Russia. The strategy of swarming the biggest stories with the unmatched resources of CNN appears to be resonating with viewers. In prime time last week, CNN topped the cable news ratings race for the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic on Wednesday through Friday, a major turnaround from just a month ago when the network had occasionally fallen behind Newsmax. The recent gains mark an early victory for the network's interim four-person executive team tasked with steering the ship into the 2024 presidential election. And, while it's still early, the signs thus far are trending positively. |
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The Tale of the Tape: CNN on Monday also continued to own the story of the audio tape that captured former President Donald Trump admitting he had retained classified information after exiting the White House — a crucial piece of evidence that undercut his previous defense. The network first broke news of the existence of the tape on June 2. Then on June 9, CNN scooped the transcript of the tape. And on Monday, CNN first aired the actual tape. The series of scoops, which have come amid internal turbulence at the network, has underscored its political reporting chops at an important juncture. |
Putin's Media Play: As Vladimir Putin faced an unprecedented rebellion inside his own country, the Russian president took swift action to retain a stronghold on media inside the country. State media mouthpieces did offer coverage of the insurrection, but from a decidedly pro-Putin point of view, airing Kremlin talking points about the series of shocking events. Meanwhile, Google News was blocked, restricting access Russians may have had to outside information sources. And Tass reported some searches for Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin had been blocked on Yandex, which is effectively Russia's version of Google. On the social media front, Telegram, which Russians had relied on for updates, also experienced outages in cities including Moscow and St. Petersburg. |
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CNN Photo Illustration/Mark Lennihan/AP |
The Faces of Fox: Fox News on Monday unveiled a revamped prime time lineup, naming a new 8 pm host to fill the void left by Tucker Carlson's firing and shuffling its biggest stars around to boost sagging ratings as viewers rebel to protest the popular host's dismissal. The right-wing network announced that Laura Ingraham will helm its 7 pm hour; Jesse Watters will move to 8 pm; Sean Hannity will remain at 9 pm; Greg Gutfeld will slide an hour earlier to 10 pm; and Trace Gallagher will anchor 11 pm. The new schedule — made up almost entirely of hosts who have grown in popularity by feeding their audience a mixture of right-wing talking points, outrage and misinformation — will take effect on July 17. Here's my story. 🔎 Zooming in: The reconfiguring of Fox News' all-important evening lineup comes as the network, which remains the top-rated channel across the cable dial, sees historically low ratings following the ouster of Carlson. In recent weeks, Fox News experimented with a rotating cast of potential replacements for Carlson in the 8 pm hour, but none of the guest hosts boosted the channel's fallen ratings in a significant way. So instead of trying to fill the hole left by Carlson with a new host, Fox News is betting on its stable of already popular show hosts to stabilize the ship in prime time. 🪓 Getting the Axe: As a result of the changes announced Monday, staffers who formerly worked on Carlson's show were told that their roles had been eliminated, a person familiar with the matter said. The staffers will be given enhanced severance packages if they remain at the company through July 14 and can apply for open roles, the person added.
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| - Sean Hannity "has been in frequent contact with Donald Trump to smooth relations" between him and Fox News, Gabriel Sherman reports. (Vanity Fair)
- Donald Trump didn't take the bait on buying into the conspiracy theory that the Titanic submersible search continued for days to distract from the Hunter Biden story, telling Newsmax host Eric Bolling he doesn't want to "get into that." (Mediaite)
- Speaking of Newsmax: Staffers at the right-wing network have been hit with subpoenas as Smartmatic pushes forward with its defamation case against it, Diana Falzone reports. (Rolling Stone)
- In a predictable legal move, Ron DeSantis is seeking the dismissal of Disney's lawsuit against him and the Florida government. (Deadline)
- Forgot this last week: Blake Neff, the former chief writer for Tucker Carlson who resigned from Fox News in 2020 after CNN revealed he had been secretly posting racist and sexist remarks in an online forum, has emerged as a producer for Charlie Kirk. (MMFA)
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The Belly of the Beast: Staffers at The Daily Beast are breathing a sigh of relief. I'm told that Heather Dietrick, the outlet's chief executive, informed staffers in recent days that parent company IAC had "decided to withdraw from negotiations with third parties" and the outlet was "no longer for sale." Dietrick, who disclosed the news to staff in a Slack message, added, "As I've said all along, IAC has been an excellent home for the Beast since its inception and I think this is a good outcome." In a statement to The NYT's Benjamin Mullin, media mogul Barry Diller said that "we did have negations with The Ankler" but had "withdrawn from them." Diller added, "The Daily Beast is not for sale." Mullin has more here. | Mourning Bohrman: The television news community is grieving. David Bohrman, a pioneering veteran producer and executive who created ABC News' "World News Tonight" and invented CNN's iconic "Magic Wall," died Sunday following complications related to hip surgery. He was 69. Bohrman's career included several chapters, with time also spent at CBS News, NBC News, and Current TV. At CNN, where he rose to become Washington bureau chief, he was revered, having launched shows, engineered election night broadcasts, executive produced the 9/11 live coverage, and so much more. "David was a CNN institution, a leader and innovator who mentored many through decades in television news," a CNN spokesperson said. "His impact at CNN lives on in our programming and his passion for news will be felt in our halls every day." CNN's Juliana Liu has more here.
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- Group Black "is in talks to buy a majority stake in the publisher of Sports Illustrated," Alexandra Bruell and Jessica Toonkel report. (WSJ)
- Vox Media "has appointed a slew of executives to new c-suite positions as it looks to diversify its business," Sara Fischer reports. (Axios)
- Evan Howell writes about the "sobering lessons" in digital media that Vice's downfall offers. (Variety)
- An unnerving new report from NewsGuard indicates that "some of the world's largest blue chip brands" have been "unintentionally" supporting "the spread of unreliable A.I.-generated news websites." (NewsGuard)
- The scene of the horrific Capital Gazette shooting has been converted to a local coffee shop, Petula Dvorak reports. (WaPo)
- Paul Farhi reports on the new "golden age" for lawyers "who are good at talking on TV." (WaPo)
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| CNN Photo Illustration/Allison Dinner/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock | The Reddit Revolution: The drama at Reddit has still not resolved itself. Protests against API changes that were supposed to only last 48 hours have now entered their third week. On Monday, some Reddit communities posted open letters asking the company for a series of concessions, including make it more "affordable" for third-party apps to access data to keep operating. The Verge's Jay Peters has more here. ► Related: Executives at Google are even admitting users are "not quite happy" with their search experience amid the Reddit protests. |
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- "A.I. is killing the old web, and the new web struggles to be born," writes James Vincent. (The Verge)
- Meta announced a new VR subscription service that will cost users $7.99 a month. (CNBC)
- Hasan Chowdhury and Shona Ghosh write about how Mark Zuckerberg is "trying to become cool." (Insider)
- CEOs across Silicon Valley have taken note of strategies deployed at Twitter by Elon Musk, with many beginning to emulate his playbook in their own operations, writes David Ingram. (NBC News)
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CNN Photo Illustration/Warner Bros. Pictures |
Gone in a Flash: More bad news for Warner Bros. Discovery: "The Flash," which was the subject of much hype by the company ahead of its release, suffered a disastrous 73% decline at the box office in its second weekend, earning only $15.3 million in North American theaters. As Variety's Rebecca Rubin noted, that is a "far bigger drop than recent DC adaptations" such as "Black Adam" and "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," which does not bode well for the DC film. Meanwhile, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" continued its hot streak by reclaiming the top spot at the box office, with $19.3 million. And Pixar's "Elemental" fell 39% in its second week, bringing in $18.5 million. Rubin has more here.
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- HBO's much-panned series "The Idol" will air its season finale on Sunday, July 2. It was believed that the show would consist of six episodes in its first season, but it will ultimately be only five. (Deadline)
- Elton John's final Glastonbury set was live-streamed by a record-setting 7.3 million people. (BBC)
- "Prince Harry and Meghan's Hollywood foray is looking like a flop," Erich Schwartzel and Sarah Krouse report. (WSJ)
- Dermot Mulroney walked off the set of a pre-taped segment of "The View," showing his solidarity with the ongoing writers strike. (The Wrap)
- John Goodman suggested in a recent interview that "The Connors" might be "coming to an end" soon. (Deadline)
- "Titanic" is set to return to Netflix, one week after the submersible tragedy transfixed the world. (THR)
- Olivia Rodrigo announced that her second album, titled "Guts," will drop on September 8. (Pitchfork)
- Drake released his first-ever book of poetry, called "Titles Ruin Everything: A Stream of Consciousness," and announced a complementary album "to go with the book." (Pitchfork)
- Chris Noth slammed a New York Post article that said he felt "iced out" of the new season of "And Just Like That..." after facing sexual assault allegations, which he has denied. (Deadline)
- Ryan Reynolds and Michael B. Jordan are among several big Hollywood names to have acquired stakes in Alpine's Formula 1 racing team. (The Wrap)
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Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by Jon Passantino and produced with the assistance of Liam Reilly. Have feedback? Send us an email here. We will see you back in your inbox tomorrow. |
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