Incoming president of CNN Worldwide Jeff Zucker has sent a memo to the staff, saying he sees “endless potential” for the network. Here’s the full memo, via a CNN staffer, first posted on Politico.
Related: Jeff Zucker: CNN Must “Remain Editorially Independent”
With Thursday’s announcement behind us, I wanted to communicate directly with you to say how excited I am to be part of CNN’s future. I have long been a consumer and admirer of CNN’s journalism. And I see endless potential for CNN across all of its platforms. As Phil Kent and I said yesterday, we are committed to maintaining CNN’s core mission. In fact, in my mind, CNN’s values are more distinct and more important than ever in today’s media landscape.
At the same time, we will have to continue to evolve. I don’t have all the answers. No one does. But I hope that we can challenge each other to think even more broadly about what CNN is and can be, and to enhance this truly special and powerful brand. The opportunities are limitless.
It is a great honor to join you on this journey. I look forward to getting to know the organization and the great people who work here.
Officially, I will begin work in late January, but I’ll start diving in soon. I’ll be travelling to meet with many of you in the weeks ahead. I can’t wait. Until then, thanks for the already warm welcome.
JEFF



“remain editorially independent.” I assume this means from sanity.
Go get’em Jeff, now if I only had CNN in a print media format and a throwback to the outhouse then I would have an appropriate place to use it.
This Jeff Zucker memo to staff is one of the best that I have ever seen in all of my years in this business. This memo has made me want to work within your team. Congratulations Jeff and CNN and Jeff- I look forward to sending my resume to you where I am going to repeat your exact words in my cover letter. Watch for my resume to hit your desktop in 2013!
Dear CNN:
Great to be here, where I can fire people with talent, and then fill the open positions with college buddies, girlfriends of college buddies, cousins, nephews, nieces and anyone else that will sing my praises even though I will run the place into the ground.
JEFF
Jeff Zucker: Please, please bring back Headline News to the old Headline News. I travel the world and wherever I am I look for Headline News. HLN has become terrible. Get rid of all the happy talk, puff pieces, weatherman banter and “good morning sunshine BS”. HLN should be news, news & news. You can do it, save CNN & HLN. Thank you.
Well, if you expect Today Show/Jay Leno prime time Jeff Zucker to get rid of the “good morning sunshine BS” you might be waiting awhile.
I guess sexy Silver Fox is out!
I wanted to communicate directly with you = my staff put together a memo, and it passed through legal. They sent a copy to, uh, everybody
I see endless potential for CNN across all of its platforms = Shows where women punch each other and somebody vomits every episode
We will have to continue to evolve = clean out your desk, just to be on the safe side
So I guess Keith Olbermann will soon be on primetime at CNN?
Didn’t we already do this episode on The Newsroom? It seems so familiar. Aaron Sorkin wrote this exact episode it was fun to film it. I had some great lines and I should win an Emmy for how erudite and profound I was.
4 main things:
1. Fire Piers Morgan. Like now.
2. Get a Bernard Shaw type back on the air. Forrest Sawyer is available.
3. For the love of god, stop obsessing over Twitter and tweets on-air.
4. HLN anchors now talk to viewers like they’re in 1st grade. Its insulting. Speak to us like adults. No more copy that sounds like, “P.U.! Is something stinky in your water?”
Hire Ted as a network consultant.
5. Office layoffs
What a pathetic failure.
Forgot one: Get rid of Wolf Blitzer. His show is terrible, he asks terrible questions, and he shouts. The only thing saving him is he looks like a news persona. itd signal change for the better.
You’re correct!! Wolf Blitzer is a joke and the main reason why CNN isn’t taken seriously.
this line sums up jeff zucker the best:
“I don’t have all the answers. no one does”
You can say that again dude!
so cnn thinks it can resuscitate its tanking ratings and brand with a known recycled FAILURE….AWESOME!
So CNN is already at the bottom of the barrel as far as ratings go. And their solution to this is to get Zuckered?
I might actually feel sorry for CNN, save for the fact that they’re a terrible news organization and they deserve being Zuckered on the way to their inevitably complete and total collapse.
Notes to Jeff/CNN:
1. Yep, cancel Morgan – he’s not for this. WHY would I tune into that for American election information when, at times, it felt Morgan was learning them system himself? Bring back Larry King or someone of that stature to be the FACE of CNN. It’s not Morgan. Morgan has a place on television with this type of show but it’s not that prime slot on CNN. Oddly enough didn’t we all talk about Katie Couric for this slot years ago? It’d work perfectly if she wants to work this hard again. You need a FACE of CNN – build from there top down. I think it’s time to get more known faces on CNN again. Spend the money.
2. Fox News plays to Republicans, MSNBC to democrats – CONTINUE to play up that CNN caters to ALL – there is a HUGE sector of the country not being looked after in regards to this personalize news coverage we’re now in. Go back to your roots CNN rinse and tweak not tweet, agree w/ the above STOP with the tweeting it’s ridiculous and mentioned so often I thought perhaps Twitter owns a stake in Time/Warner now.
3. Reestablish an INTERNATIONAL NEWS PROGRAM and make it work. Americans learn more about what the US is doing around the world when traveling in other countries and watching CNN international.
4. Do INVESTIGATIVE series and reporting. As ABC News has been proving and somewhat NBC News, there is an appetite for this. It’s cheap to produce, good reporters cost a bit more but it will get your that newsy/infotainment (it’s not going away everyone) that you want. These may actually create news.
5. Load up on advertising Jeff. If you can squeeze the big guns over there who you know from the golf course and get more funding for advertising and BRAND awareness. I’d spend money on this – young people are just deciding where to get their news from. It should be three letters: CNN. Advertise on all platforms.
6. Agree with above mention – HIRE TED TURNER as a consultant. Seriously. Sure Ted can be a little nuts but the man really knows what he’s talking about — still. Do it.
7. Bring back the “THis is CNN” booming James Earle Jones voiceover over the logo. It always was a very commanding, distinctive station identification. Bring it back.
8. Lose some of the talking head programs. Just try it. It’s so obvious people are just filling air time and trying to be controversial. WHY NOT MORE NEWS HOURS? THat’s right, on CNN in AMerica? Why not?
9. More documentaries, more specials (duh).
10. This time around — would you really pay attention to who you are hiring? Thanks.
Have fun, Zucker may not have worked in Los Angeles but he may work in Atlanta. Time will tell.
These notes, with names changed, feel like they could have been written to CNN in the 1990s – but I still feel CNN is a tremendous asset to the news business.
Zucker stunk at NBC, which stank in it’s own right, not to mention their deformed illiterate stepchild MSNBC.
CNN is on it’s rear end and continues to shove their gays, and leftists down the throat of a center right american public. Good Luck!