CNN Faucets Athan Stephanopoulos As Chief Digital Officer – Deadline

Athan Stephanopoulos has been tapped by CNN to function govt vice chairman and chief digital officer of CNN Worldwide.

There was a lot hypothesis as to who CNN Worldwide chairman and CEO Chris Licht would choose for the function. Stephanopoulos, who has been with Vox Media’s NowThis for the previous eight years, will oversee digital editorial, product, know-how, enterprise operations and innovation methods. He succeeds Andrew Morse, who departed final spring with the shuttering of CNN+.

Licht mentioned in an announcement that Stepanopoulos’ “imaginative and prescient for digital journalism, alongside his management and enterprise acumen, is precisely what we have to construct CNN’s digital future.” 

Wendy Brundige, who had been interim chief of the community’s digital operation, will turn out to be senior VP of CNN Digital Worldwide.

Stephanopoulos’ appointment comes as CNN braces for a spherical of price chopping and layoffs. Licht despatched out a memo on Wednesday warning staffers of “unsettling” adjustments following a evaluation of community operations. Warner Bros. Discovery, the mother or father of CNN, mentioned that it expects to incur to incur as much as $1.1 billion in group restructuring prices, together with “severance, retention, relocation, and different associated prices.” However Licht famous that CNN has already restructured its digital staff and “are investing considerably within the product.” 

Stephanopoulos served as president of NowThis, which is geared toward Gen Z and Millennial audiences, one thing that each one networks are craving to succeed in given the older-skewing audiences of the linear cable community. Stephanopoulos additionally was founder and CEO of Cliptamatic, a social video distribution platform, which NowThis acquired in 2014. He is also a lifetime member of the Council on Overseas Relations and beforehand served as an adjunct professor at Fordham College’s Graduate College of Enterprise in New York Metropolis.

He’ll begin in his new function on Nov. 14 and might be based mostly in New York.

Brundige will oversee enterprise operations, commerce and audio. She additionally will proceed administration and oversight of the worldwide digital video staff. She has been with CNN for eight years, and most lately served as senior vice chairman of worldwide video for CNN Digital.