CNN Lures Former ‘CBS This Morning’ Producer Ryan Kadro to Oversee News Strategy

Kadro will help revamp the network’s morning program among other ventures

ryan kadro

Ryan Kadro, formerly the executive producer for “CBS This Morning,” has been tapped as CNN’s senior vice president of content, strategy and development.

He will report to Amy Entelis, executive VP of talent and content development for CNN Worldwide. Among his duties, Kadro will help revamp CNN’s morning news program. He will also help brainstorm new programming for the cabler.

Kadro is a former deputy to Chris Licht, who is now CEO of CNN, and took over as executive producer of “CBS This Morning” after Licht departed to work on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

His appointment at CNN is yet another indicator of a larger shift in the network’s news programming strategy, following the ouster of Brian Stelter and the cancellation of “Reliable Sources.” Last week, CNN parted ways with longtime legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin as well.

In the four months since being tapped by Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav to take over CNN, Licht has sought to make the cable news channel more straight-news reporting and dial down on partisan discourse. Stelter was a strong example of opinion-led journalism as a leading voice on the network criticizing the misinformation of the Trump administration and how that was impacting news culture and democracy.

Kadro departed CBS in 2018 to lead a division of the short-lived content platform Quibi. He most recently was named chief content officer of The Recount, a digital political news site. He left that position in May.

Comments