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Jeff Zucker is New President of CNN?

By: Nov. 28, 2012
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According to The Huffington Post, Jeff Zucker is in 'advanced talks' to become the new president of CNN. Zucker, former CEO of NBC Universal, would take over the post from Jim Walton, who announced earlier this year that he would be leaving the network. 

The appointment is to be made official later this week THP reports. A source told Retuters that CNN, "is a very large stage, and a lot needs to be done to fix it," and added that Zucker "has been itching to get back in the game, and this is the best opportunity out there for him."

If the report is confirmed, Zucker will have the momumental task of turning around the struggling network. CNN is consistently behind Fox News Channel and MSNBC in primetime viewers and draws less than 1 million U.S. viewers in prime time, compared to about 2.7 million for Fox News Channel and about 1.5 million viewers for MSNBC, according to ratings data.

Adam Armbruster, a media industry consultant with Eckstein, Summers, Armbruster & Co. commented, "You never want to be stuck between two strong competitors, as they will divide the market and starve you out." He added that Zucker "needs to bring his trademark 'star power' to the network and make them relevant and create regular viewers even when no big news story is breaking." 



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