Skydance Keeps CNN and CBS News Under Separate Editors

Skydance has named Mark Thompson chairman and editor-in-chief of CNN Worldwide and kept Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News, establishing separate leadership for the two newsrooms as the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery takes effect. Both executives will report to Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz, according to the company’s leadership announcement. The structure means Weiss, whom Skydance installed at CBS News after acquiring Paramount, will not oversee CNN. Thompson will continue leading CNN and overseeing its U.S. and international operations. The announcement provides no immediate plan to combine CNN and CBS News, though it does not settle whether the networks could be integrated later. At a CNN employee town hall on Tuesday, anchor Anderson Cooper asked Ellison whether he would interfere with the network’s editorial coverage. Reporters at the event said Ellison responded that he supported news independence. Thompson also told CNN staff in a memo that he had confidence Skydance’s leaders would support the network’s editorial independence.