CNN News Group Picks Time Exec for CEO

Walter Isaacson, who spent the past 23 years working his way up through the ranks of Time Inc., has left his post as editorial director of the operation to head CNN News Group, which is struggling to compete with News Corp.’s Fox News Channel and General Electric Co.-Microsoft Corp. cable news venture MSNBC.

Monday’s announcement came just 11 days after CNN’s longtime chairman, Tom Johnson, stepped down and six months after CNN laid off nearly 10% of its work force. Isaacson promised fresher, “hard core” stories from CNN’s correspondents.

“I’m a pure dyed-in-the-wool journalist,” Isaacson said during an interview from the company’s Atlanta headquarters. “The way you make a great news network is you focus on the journalism. We faced the sensationalist challenge at Time magazine. You don’t have to dumb it down. You don’t have to go tabloid in order to make things interesting.”

As the new chairman and chief executive, Isaacson will oversee CNN/U.S., CNN Headline News, CNN International, CNNfn, CNNSI, CNN en Espanol and 10 other cable and satellite television networks around the world. He is also responsible for three private place-based networks (such as airport TV monitors); two radio networks; 12 Web sites; CNN to Go in the United States and CNN Mobile internationally; and CNN Newsource. In making the shift, Isaacson moves from one AOL Time Warner-owned property to another.

The New Orleans-born Isaacson went to Harvard and became a Rhodes Scholar. His journalism career was launched at the Sunday Times of London and the New Orleans Times-Picayune/States-Item.

In 1978, he joined the staff of Time as a national writer. By 1995, Adweek magazine had named him editor of the year.

Turner Broadcasting System Chairman and Chief Executive Jamie Kellner said he approached Isaacson five days ago with an offer. Isaacson, 49, said things had moved so quickly that they still hadn’t hammered out the length or amount of his contract. But AOL Time Warner Chief Executive Gerald M. Levin, who has known Isaacson for years, joked that he was on a “month-to-month contract.”