In an interview with the Financial Times, Licht opened up about the changes to come to the network and revealed his own strategy for rebranding CNN, a brand struggling to find a new identity as Licht has been charged with revitalizing the network and cutting costs.
“One of the biggest misconceptions about my vision is that I want to be vanilla, that I want to be centrist. That is bullshit,” Licht said. “You have to be compelling. You have to have edge. In many cases you take a side. Sometimes you just point out uncomfortable questions. But either way you don’t see it through a lens of left or right.” …
Licht said things needed to be toned down to fit with his vision of turning the network into a newspaper of sorts, relying on lifestyle content as much as breaking news.
“If everything is a crisis, if everything is 11, if everything is breaking news, then no one listens when there actually is a crisis. When you say, ‘No, no — really — the house is on fire now,’” Licht said.
[“Objective” would have been better than “centrist,” but I suspect we won’t get either from Licht. — Ed]
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