CNN Founder Ted Turner Dies at 87, Marking the End of a Media Era

Ted Turner, the pioneering media mogul and founder of CNN, has died at the age of 87, according to a statement released Wednesday by Turner Enterprises.
Turner began his career in media at just 24 years old when he took over his family’s billboard advertising business following his father’s death in 1963. In 1970, he acquired his first television station, and by 1976 he had transformed TBS into a “superstation,” using satellite technology to broadcast nationwide.
His most influential achievement came on June 1, 1980, with the launch of CNN, the world’s first 24-hour news network. CNN went on to become a global media powerhouse, reaching more than two billion people across over 200 countries and territories.
In 1996, Turner sold his media empire to Time Warner in a deal worth $7.34 billion. A year later, he donated $1 billion to the United Nations, one of the largest private donations in history.
In 2018, Turner revealed he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a progressive neurological disorder and one of the most common forms of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.
Turner is widely remembered as a visionary who reshaped global news media and transformed how the world consumes information.