CNN’s Chris Licht took over the role of Jeff Zucker and in a recent appearance on the podcast “On With Kara Swisher,” Licht explained that his competition for the cable news channel isn’t Fox News or MSNBC.
“I’m not looking at it through trying to appeal to ‘lean into the left’ or ‘try to appeal to more people on the right.’ I think that that’s not a good business model because you’re fighting for a bigger slice of a shrinking pie,” Licht said.
“The competition for me in cable is not MSNBC or Fox. Hopefully, what we’re doing is so different and unique that we are attracting people who perhaps have found cable news to be irrelevant in their lives.”
Additionally, Licht laid out who he was competing against and didn’t name any news outlets; his response will surprise many as to who he wants CNN to compete against under his tenure.
“My competition is frankly Kathleen’s HGTV and Netflix,” Licht said. “I’m fighting for people in down news times. I’m fighting for people’s discretionary attention. And I don’t believe that the way to the future is to try to steal people from Fox.”
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
The cable news space is way to crowded FOX MSNBC CNN Newsmax NewsNation plus the International outlets BBC World news, I24 news and CNBC Asia or FSTV plus the Public affairs networks CSPAN, II and III Also the Business news networks Bloomberg Fox Business CNBC and or regional cable news networks(Think NY1 or others)