An already shaken CNN got more big news Thursday: The man who has led the news operation since its pivotal Gulf War coverage has retired.
CNN News Group Chairman and Chief Executive Tom Johnson surprised staffers with the timing of his departure, but there had been widespread speculation within CNN that he might eventually leave after his role was diminished in a management shake-up last year.
A Turner Broadcasting spokesman said Johnson wasn't forced out. He asked for a meeting with Kellner on Thursday, walked in and gave a typed memo about his resignation. Kellner asked him to work with CNN as a consultant and Johnson agreed.
"It's time for a workaholic to escape the stress of work before stress gets me," Johnson wrote in a memo distributed late Thursday afternoon.
No replacement has been named. Two top executives -- CNN President Phil Kent and Chief News Executive Eason Jordan -- will now report directly to Turner Broadcasting System Chairman Jamie Kellner.
CNN and Turner executives speculate that Johnson's departure isn't likely to dramatically shift CNN's direction: The news operation is in the throes of change. Executives have been reworking prime time programming to try to stave off rival Fox News Network, which took the lead in evening ratings. And, in January, CNN fired about 400 workers.
Johnson, who turns 60 in September, wrote in his memo to staff that he plans to spend more time with his family in California and travel with his wife Edwina.
"It has been my genuine honor to have served with you during these past 10 years," he wrote. "I am so grateful to my hero Ted Turner for the opportunity of a lifetime. I have loved working with him."
Larry Woods, a friend of Johnson's and a CNN national correspondent who lost his job in cuts earlier this year, said Johnson was "shocked" when his role was diluted last year under then Turner Broadcasting Chairman Terry McGuirk.
"I think he took it hard," Woods said. "For him to have the rug pulled out from under him I think caught him off guard."
In a management shake up last August -- which a Turner executive said "was not a reorganization. It was an organization" -- Johnson retained his focus on news coverage, but lost his oversight of business responsibilities and his president's title to Turner veteran Phil Kent.
At the time, Johnson said publicly that he was "enthusiastic" about the changes. "There's no better team in which to entrust the future of CNN."
He faced other changes as well. Until last year, Johnson reported directly to Turner. But Turner's role in the company also diminished with the merger of parent Time Warner with America Online.
"Ted gave him carte blanche to do just about anything that needed doing," Woods said.
Kellner, who founded the WB network, took over as chairman of Turner Broadcasting earlier this year. He told reporters he had no plans to change Johnson's role with the company.
"Tom Johnson leaves a legacy of outstanding journalistic integrity and accomplishment that is unparalleled in the industry," Kellner said in a press release Thursday.
Woods said Johnson has spoken highly of Kellner and other Turner and CNN executives he worked with.
"Tom Johnson first and foremost is a good ole country boy team player," he said.
According to Woods, two months ago Johnson confided that he might eventually retire to spend more time with family and that he might leave "if he did not fit in with the scheme of things with this new management."
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