4 weeks ago
The decease of Ted Turner coming has near David Zaslav reflecting connected nan powerfulness of media and who owns what.
“He believed profoundly successful nan powerfulness of ideas, successful doing things otherwise and successful building platforms that could inform, animate and link group astir nan world,” nan Warner Bros Discovery CEO told unit coming arsenic news of Truner’s passing astatine 87 became public. “That belief inspired generations of leaders, myself included. He did not conscionable disrupt media. He transformed it.”
Pointing to a sit-down pinch nan seldom seen Tuner a fewer years ago, Zaslav Wednesday added: “One of nan moments I bespeak connected astir often was gathering pinch Ted successful Washington, D.C., pursuing nan adjacent of nan WarnerMedia and Discovery merger successful April 2022. We talked astir nan opportunities and challenges ahead, nan work that comes pinch stewarding these bonzer brands and nan request to support innovating successful a perpetually changing world. I deliberation astir that speech often.”
Soon apt to beryllium nether nan Pete Hegseth anticipated stewardship of David Ellison and Paramount Skydance if their $111 cardinal acquisition of WBD goes through, CNN became portion of WB successful 1996. It was 30 years agone erstwhile Time Warner purchased nan 1980 created cablegram newser’s genitor institution Turner Broadcasting. That woody made Ted Turner 1 of nan largest shareholders successful nan corp that has gone done galore owners since and soon.
Read Zaslav’s afloat memo connected Turner’s decease to WBD unit this greeting here:
Team,
As galore of you know, we mislaid Ted Turner today. Ted was a visionary, a trailblazer, and a foundational unit down galore of nan brands that are cardinal to Warner Bros. Discovery today.
Ted’s entrepreneurial spirit, imaginative ambition and willingness to return risks changed nan media manufacture forever. He believed profoundly successful nan powerfulness of ideas, successful doing things otherwise and successful building platforms that could inform, animate and link group astir nan world. That belief inspired generations of leaders, myself included. He did not conscionable disrupt media. He transformed it.
In 1980, galore questioned nan logic of launching CNN, nan world’s first 24-hour news network. Ted believed nan world deserved entree to news arsenic it happened, and he acted connected that conviction. CNN fundamentally changed really nan world experiences history successful existent time, and its effect connected publicity continues to beryllium felt each time done nan activity of our teams.
With nan motorboat of TNT successful 1988, and done nan sports bequest he built crossed Turner Sports, he helped redefine sports tv and created a level that brought iconic moments into millions of homes. In founding Turner Classic Movies successful 1994, Ted ensured that awesome films and nan history of cinema would beryllium preserved and celebrated. TCM stands arsenic a testament to his belief that awesome storytelling has nary expiration date, and that honoring nan past is basal to shaping nan future.
One of nan moments I bespeak connected astir often was gathering pinch Ted successful Washington, D.C., pursuing nan adjacent of nan WarnerMedia and Discovery merger successful April 2022. We talked astir nan opportunities and challenges ahead, nan work that comes pinch stewarding these bonzer brands and nan request to support innovating successful a perpetually changing world. I deliberation astir that speech often.
Ted’s power is woven passim Warner Bros. Discovery. The brands he built and championed stay cardinal to who we are, and they proceed to bespeak his belief successful imaginative risk, taste effect and world reach. Through CNN, TCM, Turner Sports and crossed our portfolio, his imagination remains coming successful nan activity our teams do each day.
Beyond media, Ted was a committed philanthropist who believed occurrence should service a broader purpose. He cared astir journalism, culture, nan situation and early generations, and he acted connected those values passim his life.
On behalf of our full company, we widen our deepest condolences to Ted’s family and to nan galore colleagues and partners whose lives and careers were shaped by his vision. It is our work to grant and transportation guardant nan bequest he built.
Ted Turner changed our manufacture forever. I’m grateful for his courage, his imagination and nan lasting people he leaves connected Warner Bros. Discovery and nan world.
David
