Devastating profile dogs CNN boss Chris Licht

Chris Licht speaks onstage during the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront in Manhattan in May. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Chris Licht, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, felt so confident in his plan to reinvent cable news that he allowed extraordinary, months-long access to a magazine writer. The result is devastating.

Why it matters: The Atlantic's Tim Alberta paints a brutal portrait of the head of one of the world's most famous, consequential and profitable brands — in what's destined to become an iconic magazine profile.

Alberta, who wrote the piece, and Puck's Dylan Byers, a very wired regular on the CNN beat, report that Licht has lost the support of CNN staff and perhaps the man who matters most — his boss, David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery.

How it happened: Two sources familiar with the negotiations tell Axios that Alberta pitched the story a year ago, and said he was writing with or without cooperation. CNN said no initially, but Alberta kept pushing.

Here are the six parts of Alberta's 15,000-word piece, "Inside the Meltdown at CNN," that are causing the biggest backlash:

Zaslav declined to meet with Alberta on the record for the profile, but said in a statement that "we have great confidence in the progress that Chris and the team are making and share their conviction in the strategy."