New CNN Chief Updates “Breaking News” Banner Guidelines. Cutting Back on Over-hyping every
"We are truth-tellers, focused on informing, not alarming our viewers," Licht wrote of the decision to cut back on using "Breaking News" alerts. Hiring plans also underway.
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CNN's new boss Chris Licht is beginning to make changes.
In a memo to staff Thursday, Licht updated employees on hiring and organizational structure, and discussed some new editorial priorities. Licht says that beginning today, CNN has added a "Breaking News” guideline to its stylebook, to address overuse of the breaking news banner across its network and cable news writ-large.
“It has become such a fixture on every channel and network that its impact has become lost on the audience… It certainly will need tweaks, so we are open to feedback, but this is a great starting point to try to make ‘Breaking News’ mean something BIG is happening,” Licht wrote. “We are truth-tellers, focused on informing, not alarming our viewers. You’ve already seen far less of the ‘Breaking News’ banner across our programming. The tenor of our voice holistically has to reflect that.”
Sam Feist, Washington bureau chief and senior vice president at CNN, led the team that put the new guideline together, Licht wrote.
“It certainly will need tweaks, so we are open to feedback, but this is a great starting point to try to make ‘Breaking News’ mean something BIG is happening,” Licht wrote.
Licht also discussed hiring and organizational changes, writing that Marcus Mabry will succeed Meredith Artley, who announced her decision to leave CNN last month. He also noted that his team is focused on filling open positions, and the creation of a new “guns in America” beat.
Licht officially started at the network on May 2. He and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav have signaled they want the network to return to traditional journalism over opinion based partisan programming.
Further details courtesy TV Newser.
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