One day after revamping its evening program lineup, CNN continued a week of change on Wednesday with announcements affecting the assignments of a range of executives.
The news network has hired Andrew Morse as senior vice president in charge of domestic news gathering and digital news. He had been the head of United States television at the Bloomberg News organization.
At the same time, CNN reported the departure of Scot Safon, the general manager of its sister network, HLN (formerly Headline News). Mr. Safon sent word of his resignation in a memo to staff members, saying he was leaving after 22 years at the company for an undisclosed future position. He described the decision to leave as “admittedly bittersweet.” HLN has had several bursts of increased ratings in the last year, mostly tied to coverage of criminal trials.
Mr. Morse’s appointment was one of a series of changes announced by Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN Worldwide, that also included a new reporting structure affecting executives in New York, Washington and Atlanta. They followed the fine-tuning of the network’s program lineup, announced on Tuesday.
CNN will revise its nightly lineup to add a new version of “Crossfire” — a program from its past — and to revamp the 10 p.m. hour anchored by Anderson Cooper.
Starting Sept. 16, “Crossfire” will return with new hosts at 6:30 each weekday evening. The panelists on the political debate show will be Newt Gingrich, Stephanie Cutter, S. E. Cupp and Van Jones.
Mr. Cooper will preside over a reconfigured hour at 10 p.m. starting the same night. He has been anchoring that hour in a program that is either a repeat of his nightly 8 p.m. broadcast or an update with new developments. The new program will not be a repeat of the 8 p.m. hour. Like “Crossfire,” it have a panel format, made up of CNN correspondents as well as newsmakers.
The addition of “Crossfire” at 6:30 means the holdover series “The Situation Room” will be cut back to 90 minutes, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. But CNN is not going to shortchange the anchor, Wolf Blitzer, of any daily airtime. He will add a new hour from 1 to 2 p.m. weekdays.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/business/media/cnn-tweaks-its-lineup-amid-executive-changes.html?partner=rss&emc=rss