Mogul Memo: What Jeff Zucker Can Learn from Bob Iger (No, Seriously)

Dear Jeff,

Now that it’s been a few weeks since CNN ousted your replacement, Chris Licht, I’m wondering how you’re feeling. 

I didn’t bother asking in the immediate wake of Licht’s defenestration because I’m sure you were smiling ear to ear for days on end. No, you were never so crass as to publicly voice your displeasure with the wayward direction of the news network you shepherded for nine years. But the backbiting you thought you were privately engaging in was so apparent nonetheless that it merited its own New York Times story.

I don’t know if it’s medically possible to overdose on schadenfreude, but you no doubt put that to the test. But now that your obsession has run its course, what’s next for you to channel your energies toward?

The man who ousted you from CNN — your old pal Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav — faces the difficult task of finding Licht’s replacement. How quickly you must have gone from licking your wounds to licking your chops at the thought of Zaz proving once again there’s no replacing you. 

As I counseled Zaslav in my previous “Mogul Memo,” hiring the right leader won’t matter if he doesn’t pivot CNN with the right strategy — the same strategy you employed in your own near-decade run at the helm. 

So here’s a thought: Why can’t the person to restore that strategy be you? 

Don’t be so quick to dismiss the suggestion, Jeff. I know you CEO types like to move on to bigger and better things, but here’s the thing: Have you? 

All we know about what you’ve been up to since your CNN days is that RedBird Capital and United Arab Emirates-based International Media Investments has handed you $1 billion to put together a portfolio of media properties. But there’s nothing to show yet for the dollars besides rampant speculation regarding what ventures are in your sights. 

It’s tempting to chalk up your inaction to the truth that even a billion-dollar blank check doesn’t give you the thrills that running CNN did. 

Perhaps you should be taking your cues from another media mogul who swore he’d never go back to his old job: Bob Iger. 

Surely you’ve noticed the parallels. Just like your own behavior toward CNN after your exit, Iger seemed to get more notice for sniping loudly about how badly the business he once led was being managed by his replacement than anything else he was doing once he left Disney in the hands of Bob Chapek. 

Look, I get it. It’s hard to watch your successors waddle around in the big shoes you left to fill and do nothing but trip over themselves. But to play Monday-morning quarterback from the sidelines? You both seemed like jilted boyfriends obsessing over their exes.

And just like you’ve been doing in the months since leaving CNN, Iger’s own post-Disney activities seemed to consist of dabbling in small-fry ventures that seem like the best way to make $1 billion in private equity pocket change evaporate. 

If you think people would be shocked to see you back running CNN, just recall how surprised everyone was when Iger climbed back in the Disney saddle. [CUT OFF HERE]

This was a guy who told anyone who would listen after he vacated Burbank that he’d hung up his spurs for good. “I don’t miss my job … Retirement is great. I have a vastly different life than I had before,” he told Kara Swisher onstage at the Code Conference in September 2022, just two months before backtracking.

And by all indications, he was having a very different life once he left: becoming an investor in a motley collection of firms including avatar creator Genie, delivery startup Gopuff, Australian creative design firm Canva, augmented-surgery tool Medivis and venture firm Thrive Capital.

Apparently, all that wasn’t enough, though. And when the Disney board came calling, Iger jumped at the chance to attempt to clean up Chapek’s mess and put yet another feather in his already overstuffed cap.

Just imagine what coming back to CNN and righting that ship could do to your tarnished image. That inappropriate relationship you said WBD used as “a pretext” for canning you? It would end up a forgotten footnote to your career.

Worried going back to CNN would mean leaving your new Abu Dhabi friends in the lurch? Don’t fret, they’ll find other places to park their petrodollars. Given that all you seem to have done with their billion is sniff around a bunch of newsletters — such as former Vanity Fair grandee Graydon Carter’s Airmail and former Vanity Fair associate grandee Jon Kelly’s Puck — you’re doing them a favor. Trust me, Jeff, RedBird wasn’t looking to invest in a Condé Nast retirement home. 

Don’t get me wrong: Building another media empire from scratch would be great, but it’s not as easy as Barry Diller made it look at IAC. Just ask Jeffrey Katzenberg if he plans to get anywhere near media again after Quibi. 

So, here’s what you’re going to do: Now that it’s summertime, drive 10 minutes down the road from your Hamptons crib to the Zaslav residence with the finest vintage from your wine cellar and bury the hatchet. Zaz is desperate for a solution at CNN, and you need to get back to doing what you love.

Sure, going hat in hand to a friend who betrayed you might be a very awkward conversation but no more so than having to dodge Zaslav at Michael Rubin’s White Party for the next decade.

Ask your old pal Matt Lauer what it’s like skulking around the Hamptons dodging the people you don’t want to see. It’s no way to spend a summer given what you’re spending to live out there. 

And if you just can’t bring yourself to grovel for your old job, how’s this for a power move: Get RedBird and IMI to give you more money so you can buy CNN from WBD. Think about how great the timing is, as Zaslav may be more primed than ever to unload his biggest headache, and the value of that business may be at an all-time low (thanks, Licht!).

And don’t forget, Iger is 72, and you’re 14 years younger — still a spring chicken by CEO standards. You’ve got at least one more chapter in you before you enter the Don Corleone-puttering-in-his-garden phase.

You’re suffering from what Iger had. Let’s call it “Elba syndrome,” named for the island where Napoleon was exiled after his incredible military career seemed to come to an end in 1814 at the Battle of Leipzig. Then after spending a year going stir crazy as an emperor of a tiny island, he snuck into France and took back control. 

Moral of the story: Once you’ve gotten a taste of overseeing an empire, it’s a tough addiction to kick, and no island-size consolation prize is a substitute.

Sure, the last years of Napoleon’s reign weren’t too great, but here’s a more recent example of a guy who couldn’t bring himself to leave the limelight: Tom Brady, whose un-retirement led to yet another Super Bowl win before he met his own Waterloo last year and finally hung up his cleats for good.

Learn from Iger’s example, and get back in the game.