Ken Jautz to Lead CNN

Ken Jautz, a long time CNN executive who most recently oversaw the HLN network, has assumed the role of executive vice president of CNN/U.S. reporting to Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide. Jautz replaces Jon Klein who will be departing the company after 6 years in the role.

Jautz has managed several networks for CNN and Turner Broadcasting in both Europe and the United States including HLN, CNNfn, and n-tv, a German national news channel.

At HLN, Jautz revamped and re-branded the network, formally known as CNN Headline News, and created an entirely original line-up of evening talk shows that more than doubled the network’s prime time ratings. Under Jautz’s leadership, HLN launched such signature programs as Nancy Grace, Joy Behar, ShowBiz Tonight, Issues with Jane Velez Mitchell and Morning Express with Robin Meade.

“Ken has a rich history with CNN – as a reporter, bureau chief, programmer and news executive – and comes to this position with a proven track record,” said Walton. “He is a respected, strategic and decisive leader and is the right person to lead CNN into the future.”

Previously, Jautz served as executive vice president of CNN’s business news operations and the CNNfn network, as well as CNN Money. He also served as managing director of n-tv, a German news and television company partly owned by Time Warner. Jautz, who is fluent in German, had previously worked as a London-based business development executive at Turner Broadcasting Europe, helping launch channels in several European markets.

Jautz joined CNN in 1989 as CNN’s bureau chief in Germany. Prior to that he had been an international correspondent for The Associated Press. Among the stories Jautz covered as a journalist were the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent revolutions in East European countries, the 1991 Gulf War and the dissolution of both the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

Jautz is a graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.