Personal Questions:


1. Name one thing you couldn't live without.
It's a tie: pizza or tivo.

2. What are your favorite TV shows that are not news related.
Seinfeld, Seinfeld, Seinfeld.

3. What do you do when you're not working?
Drive to and from work.


CNN Questions:


1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of CNN in your view?
Strengths are that we've got more people, and more good people, than anyone in the business. Plus a heritage of being the most trusted source of news and information in the world. Our global renown is a huge advantage. And a far greater newsgathering budget than anyone else in the world.
A weakness has been that the power of our organization has been diffused - that is, we don't concentrate our fire in one particular place. So we do a little of everything, therefore not having as great an impact as we might if we focused more. For instance, this weekend, we were doing the big snow storms as just another news story, giving equal weight to all the other things going on in the world. When in fact, the biggest storms of the year affect far more people than most anything else we might cover. We corrected that quickly - throwing more reporters and crews into the breach - because the organization responds extremely nimbly. But it shows that we're not yet at the point where we instinctively train our fire on a few select areas. That is fast changing.

2. Do you have a favorite program on CNN?
Not that i'd disclose in public! I'd have to give someone a raise.

3. Can you tell us how a normal day as a CNN president looks like? Walk
us through it.
Up at 5am, check the international and domestic coverage notes (which reporters are covering which stories), plus newspapers online and blogs.
Watch daybreak and beginning of american morning.
Listen to american morning on sirius on the way in.
Morning editorial call with all the desks and shows.
Meet with prime time producers to post mortem last night's shows, discuss planning for future shows.
Lunch with reporters, producers, anchors, agents or trade writers.
Daily futures meeting with editorial staff.
Various meetings with talent and shows, or with other cnn division heads (international, headline news, financial, marketing, sales etc).
Late afternoon - check in on prime time broadcasts re: final lineups.
Drive home - listen to prime time on sirius.
Have dinner.
Watch more prime time, live and on tivo. Take notes for following day's post mortems.

4. What was your biggest challenge at CNN so far?
Just figuring out how such a large and complex organization handles the basics.

5. Is there one thing at CNN you're not happy with?
The lower-third chyrons are too small - can't read anyone's name!

6. What did surprise you the most during your CNN-time so far?
How good so many of the people are. At the broadcast networks, we always wrote off cable news people as mediocrities who couldn't get jobs with us - but in fact there are more good people here than at the networks, and they are more single-mindedly devoted to covering the news.

7. What can we expect to see on CNN in the next few months?
More stories that are relevant to your life, told through the eyes of a compelling central character.