CNN Worldwide announced today the company is bringing on David Leavy as its new Chief Operating Officer. He will be in charge of commercial, operational, and promotional operations for CNN Worldwide starting June 20th, 2023.
David Leavy is currently the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN. He has been with the company since before Discovery merged with Warner Bros. Leavy will report directly to Christ Licht, Chairman of CNN, who will be focusing on managing the programming and editorial direction of the network.
In a statement, Chris Licht said, “David’s deep operational experience, institutional knowledge, and key industry relationships perfectly complements the strengths of our leadership team.”
David Leavy is no stranger to the news circuit, having been a press representative during the Clinton administration, although this will be his first venture into the business side of the news.
What once was a go-to news network is now struggling to keep audiences tuning in. CNN has been steadily losing viewers over the past year. A Nielsen report covering the last half of January 2023 shows the lowest ratings tank the network has seen in over nine years, bringing in only 444,000 viewers for primetime programs.
This past March, CNN’s primetime audience decreased by 61 percent, averaging only 473,000 viewers. Many news networks are seeing declining numbers but to put CNN’s numbers into perspective, Fox News Channel dropped 27 percent while MSNBC lost 12 percent of viewers. The two networks averaged significantly higher audience numbers, with Fox News Channel holding at 2.09 million and MSNBC averaging 1.14 million primetime viewers.
CNN Worldwide hopes to entice more people to choose its network over competitors under the guidance of David Leavy. The network plans to provide more balanced and comprehensive coverage of newsworthy events, casting a wider audience net.