CNN has a new owner: Skydance.
After a tumultuous, roughly yearlong process, Skydance-owned Paramount closed its $81 billion buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday. And beyond Hollywood, the mega merger brings two titans of the American TV news landscape — CBS and CNN — under the same roof.
On the eve of the deal's completion, Skydance confirmed that CNN's Mark Thompson will stay on as editor-in-chief of the network — separate from CBS, where Bari Weiss remains at the helm. But how the combined company's news operations will look farther down the road is yet to be seen.
Politics are also top of mind. The billionaire family of Skydance CEO David Ellison has a cozy relationship with President Donald Trump — who has been far from shy about targeting coverage he deems unfavorable from both CNN and CBS. Last month, his administration moved to bar CNN from the White House. And the network's new ownership arrives as coverage ramps up less than a month ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Ellison has pledged to maintain editorial independence. And under a recent settlement with states that challenged the merger, the company agreed to establish new monitoring of CBS and CNN by forming a “News Editorial Independence Board” within 180 days of completing its Warner acquisition.
Still, Skydance's corporate leaders will choose who sits on this board. Critics are bracing for potentially deepening editorial turmoil — and warn of consequences of industry consolidation overall.
CNN's editor-in-chief remains
Skydance announced Monday that Thompson — who has been CNN's chair and CEO since 2023 — would continue to lead the network. In a staff memo published by Business Insider and others, Thompson said he had “real confidence” Ellison and other Skydance leaders “will fully support the principle and practice of the kind of independent news that CNN has always stood for.”
Thompson, a former chief executive of the BBC and The New York Times, acknowledged that some details of how CNN will operate have yet to be finalized — but said he planned to lead the network “with the same responsibilities and prerogatives that I have now.”
CBS News and its hallmark “60 Minutes” program have already seen ample editorial turmoil since coming under Skydance ownership last year. For critics of those changes, news of Thompson staying at CNN marks a meaningful safeguard, but some experts cautioned that time will tell.
“Both CNN and CBS News will ultimately sit under the same corporate ownership, and ownership can exert influence in ways that are much more subtle than directly telling an editor what stories to cover," said J. Christopher Hamilton, an associate professor at Syracuse University.
The long-term question “is whether that independence remains intact when it becomes costly or uncomfortable for the parent company,” he added.
Charles Schreger, an adjunct professor at NYU's Leonard N. Stern School of Business, expects Thompson not to be influenced by politics — and said he doesn't think Skydance would keep the executive on if the company didn't "have the intention of letting him operate (CNN) in a neutral way.”
New editorial monitoring
According to court documents, the new editorial independence body will include five “active or retired” journalists with at least 10 years of experience.
Still, those members will all be appointed by and report to the combined company's board of directors. Ellison is remaining chairman of what is now the combined Skydance.
“While it is termed independent, it is going to be filled with members appointed by Paramount,” said Megan Duncan, an associate professor of journalism at Virginia Tech's School of Communication. She predicts that will “lessen the teeth of this board."
Per the settlement, the board's responsibilities include establishing a set of “guiding editorial principles” based on CBS and CNN's standards and practices, resolving “any disputes” between both employees at the two networks and corporate management and “monitoring adherence to ethical journalism.”
Ellison previously promised that editorial independence “will absolutely be maintained” under Paramount ownership.
“It’s maintained at CBS. It’ll be maintained at CNN,” Ellison told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” in March. And in an August op-ed published by the New York Times he reiterated that “our journalists will continue to answer to the facts and to all the people they serve — not to any party or cause.”
‘Disappointed that we could not do more’
Top prosecutors like California Attorney General Rob Bonta — who led the coalition of 12 states that initially sought to block the Paramount-Warner merger — have said this new board will help “ensure independent, objective, fact-based reporting."
Still, others wished the settlement could've gone further. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong wanted a full divestiture of CNN and CBS and said last month he was “deeply disappointed that we could not do more.”
Meanwhile, while joining the rest of the states in the wider settlement, Colorado and Washington notably declined to sign off on the editorial board terms.
Separately, as part of a settlement with Hollywood writers, the Writers Guild of America said Paramount also agreed to prohibit writer layoffs specifically at CBS News Broadcast for the next five years.
Experts like Duncan stress it will be important to keep an eye on any future job cuts — or merging of future resources in the name of profits.
That might look like CNN and “60 Minutes" being able to share findings from one high-profile interview, for example, she explains. A consequence could be fewer approaches to report on important stories.
“The more news that we have that is competing for an audience’s credibility and attention, the better off we are as a democracy,” Duncan said. She also pointed to CNN's robust international coverage today, and warned there might be cuts to that reporting if the company chooses to focus on consolidating its U.S. audience — which could have an outsized impact on “our first draft of history.”
Sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are also set to hold sizable indirect ownership stakes of the now-combined Skydance. These investors don't have voting interests in the company, but critics say the money opens the door to potential behind-the-scenes influence overall.
Trump and CNN
Last month, Trump barred CNN — as well as Politico and MS NOW — from the White House due to what he called unfavorable coverage. All three outlets since filed a joint lawsuit, and are continuing to fight their case in court.
CNN has long attracted ire from the Republican president and members of his administration. Earlier this year, the White House attacked CNN for its coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran — and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters that “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”
CBS has faced its own attacks from Trump, too. Skydance’s 2025 acquisition of Paramount was approved by the Federal Communications Commission just weeks after the company agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over editing at the network's “60 Minutes” program.
Back in December, just days after Paramount launched its then-hostile bid for Warner, Trump said that CNN spread “poison and lies” and that it was “imperative” the network be sold.
He applauded the merger's closing more broadly on Tuesday — saying Skydance is “going to be a great company.”
Associated Press writer Laurie Kellman in London contributed.
