CNN Chief Digital Officer Athan Stephanopoulos to Exit

Athan Stephanopoulos, CNN‘s executive vice president and chief digital officer, is set to leave the company.

On Wednesday, chairman and CEO Mark Thompson sent a memo to staff about the departure that was acquired by TheWrap. Stephanopoulos is expected to stay at CNN through the end of January.

The memo included a message from Stephanopoulos, noting that while there was “much we agreed on” regarding CNN’s future, “it also became clear that Mark had his own vision of how he wanted digital operations to be organized.”

“In order to give him the freest hand possible to structure and shape the organization moving forward, I felt that now was the best time for me to step back from my role and move on to a new chapter,” Stephanopoulos wrote. “I sincerely wish CNN and each of you great success in the path ahead.” 

“Since his arrival, Athan has been a strong and capable leader of our digital team and a collaborative colleague across the organization,” Thompson wrote of the upcoming departure. “I know that everyone who’s worked alongside him at CNN will want to join me in thanking him for everything he’s done for us and to wish him every success in his next chapter.”

CNN’s digital strategy has proved to be a challenge for the news organization. Before Licht was CEO, the company launched the ill-fated CNN+, a streaming service that only lasted a month. Roughly a month after Licht took over the company in May of 2022 two executives who were involved in the launch of CNN+ — Alex MacCallum and Andrew Morse — announced they were leaving the company.

Stephanopoulos first joined CNN Worldwide in October of 2022. At the time of his hiring, he reported to Chris Licht, the former chairman and CEO of CNN who was fired from the position in June of 2023.

He joined the company after working for more than eight years at the social media-focused news organization NowThis. During his time there, Stephanopoulos served as president and was instrumental in helping the brand find its Millennial and Gen Z audience. He also helped the brand during its acquisition and integration into Group Nine Media while being part of the company’s executive leadership team and later guided NowThis’s integration into Vox Media in early 2022.

Before NowThis, Stephanopoulos was the founder and CEO of the video distribution platform Cliptamatic. He’s also a lifetime member of the Council of Foreign Relations and previously worked as an adjunct professor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business.

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