BREAKING NEWS: CNN Chief Says BREAKING NEWS Banners Are Overused, Will ‘Focus on Informing, Not Alarming Viewers’

CNN’s infamous “BREAKING NEWS” banner is finally getting an overhaul. New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin dropped the scoop of CNN’s new President Chris Licht announcing the change in an email to staff on Thursday morning.

“Something I have heard from people both inside and outside the organization is complaints we overuse the ‘Breaking News’ banner. I agree,” Licht wrote.

“It has become such a fixture on every channel and network that its impact has become lost on the audience. Starting today, CNN has added a ‘Breaking News’ guideline to our stylebook. A special thank you to Sam Feist, who led the team that put the guideline together. It certainly will need tweaks, so we are open to feedback, but this is a great starting point to try to make ‘Breaking News’ mean something BIG is happening,” he continued.

“We are truth-tellers, focused on informing, not alarming our viewers,” Licht added.

Licht, a veteran television producer credited with making shows like Morning Joe successful, left his role as the executive producer of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to succeed Jeff Zucker. Licht, now one month on the job, has already overseen the killing of CNN+ and has hinted at how he plans to bring the ratings beleaguered news network back to prominence.

“In a time where extremes are dominating cable news, we will seek to go a different way — reflecting the real lives of our viewers and elevating the way America and the world views this medium,” Licht said at the Warner Bros. Discovery upfront in mid-May, doubling down on previous comments he had made suggesting he would cut down on prime time partisan programming.

“You’ve already seen far less of the ‘Breaking News’ banner across our programming. The tenor of our voice holistically has to reflect that,” Licht added in his email. “As I have said, we must be vital, relevant, and respected – and how we show up for our audiences, in every story, in every part of the country, and around the world, matters.”

Licht also announced a new “guns in America” vertical and that Marcus Mabry will be interim leader of CNN’s wildly successful digital division after the departure of Meredith Artley.

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