WarnerMedia-Discovery merger means CNN president Jeff Zucker will work for his "best friend" -- Discovery CEO David Zaslav

The New York Times

Zucker's close relationship with his new boss, who will head up the combined new company, is notable because the CNN president clashed with his outgoing boss, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, which appeared to be the primary reason Zucker said in February he was leaving CNN at the end of the year. "If the deal closes, Mr. Zaslav would oversee Mr. Zucker’s portfolio of CNN and Turner sports programming for the foreseeable future; he signed a contract with Discovery on Tuesday that would keep him with the company until 2027," reports The New York Times' Michael M. Grynbaum and John Koblin. "That has changed the calculus for Mr. Zucker, who had previously said he expected to leave CNN at the end of 2021 but now, according to friends, may be open to a longer stay. Mr. Zucker declined to comment, but Mr. Zaslav, in a telephone interview, did not dismiss the idea." Zaslav said of Zucker: “He’s a hugely talented guy, and we’ll see what he wants to do." Grynbaum and Koblin add: "In a staff memo on Monday, Mr. Zucker made no mention of his 30 years of friendship with Mr. Zaslav: their early years at NBC together, regular kibitz sessions on the phone, or weekend golf games in the Hamptons where their sprawling estates sit a 10-minute drive apart. (Mr. Zucker is inland; Mr. Zaslav has the oceanfront view.) Nor did he point out that Mr. Zaslav’s daughter is a producer in CNN’s Washington bureau. But his excitement was obvious. 'This is big and exciting news for our company,' Mr. Zucker wrote. 'And, I think it’s fair to say, really good news for us.' People who have spoken with the CNN president in recent days report his mood on the telephone as buoyant. His confidants, who requested anonymity to describe private conversations, said that Mr. Zucker had learned of the impending merger only shortly before the public announcement, and that he was still determining his options." ALSO: Jeff Zucker is poised for a comeback, possibly as global chairman of news and sports or chief content officer of the new venture.