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Ted Turner, the flamboyant billionaire who founded CNN, America’s first 24-hour news network that transformed the country’s media and political landscape, died on Wednesday at 87.
Turner said in 2018 that he was suffering from Lewy body dementia and had largely withdrawn from public life in recent years.
He was best known for launching CNN in 1980, disrupting the television ecosystem and ushering in a faster, more dramatic rhythm to the US news business.
Turner belonged to a generation of larger-than-life media entrepreneurs, including Rupert Murdoch, who helped shape the modern entertainment and news landscape.
Mark Thompson, CNN’s chief executive, said on Wednesday: “Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand,” praising Turner as “intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgment”.
David Zaslav, chief executive of Warner Bros Discovery, said Turner’s “willingness to take risks changed the media industry forever”.
Yet the legacy media groups that Turner helped build now face mounting pressure as audiences fragment and people increasingly turn elsewhere for news.
Turner was known for his outspoken, off-the-cuff style and led a turbulent life in both business and family. He married and divorced three times, including a decade-long marriage to the actress Jane Fonda in the 1990s, during which they became one of America’s highest-profile couples.
He began building what would become a media empire from his father’s billboard advertising company, taking over the business at 24 after his father died by suicide.
Turner expanded from outdoor advertising into radio, television and sports, acquiring the Atlanta Braves baseball team and Atlanta Hawks basketball team during the 1970s.
On June 1 1980, he launched CNN, revolutionising television news and establishing what would become his enduring legacy. He later created other channels including Turner Classic Movies and the Cartoon Network.
In 1996, Turner sold his television assets, including CNN, to WarnerMedia, then known as Time Warner, for more than $7bn and became vice-chair of the combined company.
He later bemoaned the deal after Time Warner’s ill-fated merger with AOL, saying: “I lost 80 per cent of my worth and subsequently lost my job.”
After stepping down as vice-chair, Turner increasingly devoted himself to environmental causes and philanthropy. In 2015, he launched an ecotourism business on his sprawling New Mexico ranches, telling reporters at the time: “It gives me something to live for besides cable television.”
Turner donated $1bn to the UN and became one of the largest private landowners in the US.
He told the FT in 2017: “In my absence, everything I’ve worked for over the many decades will continue to receive the attention they deserve.” He is survived by five children.
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