Jeff Zucker Doesn’t Watch Much CNN

Lachlan Cartwright
·9 min read
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It has been two years since Jeff Zucker resigned from the top job at CNN over a consensual relationship with a network executive. Since then, he’s headed up RedBird IMI, a joint venture between Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital and IMI, an investment fund backed by the UAE. With a massive private equity war chest behind him, Zucker, 58, has been relentlessly hunting for deals. In a little over a year, he has invested in TV studio and motion picture company Media Res and news site Front Office Sports and just made an audacious bid to buy the U.K.’s Telegraph, provoking an outcry from journalists and politicians. On Feb. 17, Zucker’s firm bought powerhouse producer All3Media (which backed 1917, Fleabag, Squid Game: The Challenge, The Tinder Swindler and Penny Dreadful, among many other movies, docs and shows) for $1.45 billion. The mogul spoke to The Hollywood Reporter shortly after.

What’s the reasoning behind buying these entities at a time when so much media is fragmenting?

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Clearly the marketplace is not necessarily what it was, but what it continues to need and will always need is quality programming and quality content. There’s always going to be a demand for that. So what we are focused on is looking for those producers who can deliver that. I think that in times of trouble it is the strongest who will survive with the proper financial support and the right organizational backing and I think that’s what we provide and so we think it’s opportunity time for those that can make it through.

What type of producers are you looking to back?

All3 is really the strongest, in our opinion, the strongest nonfiction aggregator around there. Jane Turton, who runs it, and her team have just done a tremendous job curating a group of companies that each have a distinct strength and a distinct brand, and that’s what we were interested in. You look at Media Res, led by Michael Ellenberg, and the shows that he has delivered such as The Morning Show and Pachinko in the scripted space. There is a quality to what he has produced. So that really gives you a sense of what we are looking for. It is really quality programming across both scripted and non scripted spaces.

How does what you are doing differ from the Tom Staggs- and Kevin Mayer-run Candle Media?

I don’t know enough about what Candle is attempting to do. All I can say is our focus has been to build a global news and entertainment company that can scale, and we’ve only been at it for one year. That’s the other thing to keep in mind. We have been incredibly disciplined in our spending decision making and looking for companies, as I said, that have distinct programing and quality content and that’s what we are hoping to build on in the years to come.

What is your approach to the news investments?

Front Office Sports is the leading news organization covering the business of sports. The Telegraph is one of the great titles and newspapers in the English speaking world. Our goal is to invest in or acquire companies that are well situated for the future, especially digitally.

Were you surprised or even prepared for the backlash from journalists at The Telegraph to the proposed acquisition?

We understood from the start that obviously The Telegraph plays an incredibly important role in British society and has a really important voice in the British political ecosystem, and so we knew there would be a lot of attention focused on it. I think there is absolutely no reason for it not to be approved and we are confident in time the Secretary of State will see it that way and we also understand that they will take as much time as they need to get there. The reality is there are very few journalistic organizations in the world that would have the kind of investment that we are prepared to make in The Telegraph and we think that, at a time that journalistic organizations are facing headwinds both in the U.S. and in Europe, our willingness and desire to grow that title should be an incredibly welcome event.

What would that investment look like? Would part of that investment look at staffing up a huge apparatus for The Telegraph digitally here in the U.S?

One of our goals with The Telegraph would be to export its independent minded journalism globally and the U.S. would be a huge marketplace for that so we would look to expand very much in the United States.

Is it frustrating that this review could carry on for some time? Is it frustrating you have to hit suspended animation for the time being?

What we did on Friday shows that we are not in suspended animation. The reality is we are continuing to invest. We are continuing to grow. Just in the last few months we announced our most recent investments in Front Office Sports, Media Res and now All3. We are not standing pat at all and we are going to continue to move forward with other moves and other investments and we will continue to be patient as the regulatory process plays itself out in the U.K.

How much do you watch CNN, and how do you think Mark Thompson is getting on in the role you held?

CNN was an incredible part of my life, and I couldn’t be prouder of what we did there for almost 10 years, but I’m on to a new part of my life and a new phase. I don’t watch much television news at all, including CNN. Mark is a really smart, talented executive and he has got a really tough hand, but I’m sure he’ll do a really good job.

What’s your relationship with Chris Cuomo these days?

I’m not going to comment on Chris Cuomo.

Is there really a market for new content at a time when Peak TV is in sharp decline? 

It’s imperative that whatever you are offering, whether it’s in the scripted space like Media Res does or in the unscripted space like All3 does, that you offer strong, good-quality content.

What lessons can be learned from the disastrous launch of The Messenger and what has played out there?

I think you always have to define a hole in the marketplace and offer something that is unique and I think that’s what we’ve tried to do with Front Office Sports covering the business of sports and I think you have to have a good thesis, good operational expertise and understand where the opening in the marketplace is and what the consumer wants.

What do you think of the media outlook in the years ahead?

I think that all the legacy media we’ve grown up with will have to evolve and have to change, and it’s not going to be for the faint of heart. But at the end of the day, people are still going to want their news. They are still going to want their entertainment and they are just going to consume it differently. The means of distribution are changing fast but the desire for good quality content, both news and entertainment, will continue to be there.

CNN’s coverage of Donald Trump was highly criticized. How do you think CNN should cover him now?

I actually think our coverage of the ’16 and ’20 elections was really strong. We weren’t perfect, we certainly made mistakes. I never was shy about acknowledging that, but in the aggregate I was really proud of it. You cannot cover this election with a faint heart at all, and hopefully the leaders of each of these organizations learned a lot of lessons.

How do you think this election is going to play out?

I have no idea, that’s why they hold the election.

CNN now positions itself as a more neutral alternative to Fox and MSNBC but ratings have been diving. In this polarized environment that we live in is there really a market for neutral news?

It’s imperative for any news organization to report the news and call out the truth and that’s the key. I think there is absolutely a marketplace for strong independent minded journalism and that’s what we were doing at CNN in my entire time there and I’m incredibly proud of that and I think good programming and a good strong backbone is what’s called for in times like this.

How do you think the history books will look back on Chris Licht’s short-lived tenure in your CNN job?

I’m not even going to go within 100 miles of that.

More time at the gym?

I was going to say that but I’m not going to comment.

What are you going to buy next?

We are focused on making sure that each of these investments and acquisitions succeed in the year ahead and will continue to look for opportunities as they come up. But we will do so with our thesis always in mind, with strong content that has its own intellectual property.

Who is someone you admire who is doing what you are doing right now? What’s the model here?

We are trying to build our own media company for the future because we’re combining both news and information and entertainment. There are not a lot of companies that have done that. Certainly someone who I admire who has built a really strong media company for today is Peter Chernin. I always enjoyed competing against him.

If you are me what question should I be asking you?

Do I really think there is a future for journalism in this country? And I think the answer is “Yes” but it is going to require investment and patience and a very strong backbone that stands up for the truth.

This story appeared in the Feb. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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