CNN president Jeff Zucker resigns over relationship with CMO Allison Gollust

CNN President Jeff Zucker resigned after nine years at the cable news network after failing to disclose a consensual relationship with a longtime co-worker.

Zucker made the announcement in a message to staff members, according to Brian Stelter, the network’s media reporter who posted the note in a tweet. Zucker, 56, said he was asked about the relationship as part of the network’s investigation into harassment claims against former program host Chris Cuomo.

“I acknowledged the relationship evolved in recent years,” Zucker wrote. “I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong.”

Although Zucker did not disclose the other person involved, Stelter and Darcy in a CNN article noted that it was with Chief Marketing Officer Allison Gollust, who will remain with the Network. 

Subscribe to Ad Age now for award-winning news and insight.

A year ago, Zucker said he planned to step down when his contract expired at the end of 2021, but he later said that he would stay at least until Discovery Inc. closed its merger with CNN’s owner, AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia, which is expected in the second quarter of this year. There was speculation that Zucker might stay on at CNN after the deal closes because he is close friends with Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

His departure comes at a pivotal time for CNN. Not only is the cable network about to have a new owner and battling a steep ratings decline, it’s planning to launch a new streaming service, CNN+, in the coming months.

See which brands are buying ads in Super Bowl 2022.

CNN ranks a distant third behind Fox News and MSNBC in nightly prime-time ratings among the 24-hour news networks, according to data from Nielsen. The network is averaging 647,000 viewers a night in prime time this season, compared with 2.38 million a night for Fox and 1.17 million for MSNBC.

Zucker also oversees sports programming at WarnerMedia, which is weeks away from its March Madness broadcast.

Subscribe to Ad Age now for award-winning news and insight.

—Bloomberg News