Ted Turner, CNN founder and media pioneer, dies at 87

Ted Turner, the billionaire media entrepreneur who turned a local television station into a cable empire and then launched CNN, the world’s first 24-hour news network, has died at 87, according to a statement from Turner Enterprises.

The company said Turner died peacefully on Wednesday, May 6, surrounded by his family. No cause of death was given.

Turner’s death closes the chapter on one of the most forceful and disruptive figures in American media.

Born Robert Edward Turner III in Cincinnati in 1938, he built his early fortune by taking over his father’s billboard business, buying a struggling Atlanta television station in 1970 and turning it into the superstation WTBS.

In 1980, he launched CNN in Atlanta, a move that changed television news by giving viewers a 24-hour cable channel devoted entirely to reporting.

CNN’s current leadership described Turner as the force that shaped the network’s identity.

“Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid and fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement. He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN,” CNN Worldwide CEO Mark Thompson said in a statement. “Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognise him and his impact on our lives and the world.”

Turner’s influence reached far beyond cable news. He expanded his empire with TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network and TCM, then sold Turner Broadcasting System to Time Warner in 1996.

Reuters reported that he later struggled inside corporate ownership after years of running his own company, and eventually lost control of the networks he had built.

He also became known for his philanthropy and environmental work.

Turner donated $1 billion to the United Nations, helped create the United Nations Foundation and co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

Turner Enterprises said he had preserved more than two million acres of land and used his ranching interests, including a large bison herd, to support his business ventures and conservation work.

Turner had disclosed in 2018 that he had Lewy body dementia, a degenerative nerve disease.

In later years, his public appearances became less frequent, yet his reputation as a brash, combative and unusually ambitious media executive remained intact.

Turner himself once captured that persona with his familiar line, “If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect.”

Turner Enterprises said he is survived by five children, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

The family said a private service is planned, with a public memorial to follow later. “Call me Ted!” the family statement said, preserving one of the signatures of a man who spent much of his career trying to remake television, news and philanthropy on his own terms.