Koonin to leave Turner

Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks, is leaving the company after 14 years to become CEO of US professional basketball team Atlanta Hawks.

The Atlanta-based role saw Koonin oversee programming, marketing, scheduling, strategy and operations for Turner’s US cable channels TNT, TBS, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and TruTV.

Koonin, a former marketing exec at Coca-Cola, now plans to end his career with the NBA team having joined Turner in 2000 to run TNT.

His departure comes amid a string of management changes at Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) since John Martin replaced Phil Kent as chairman and CEO of the parent company in January.

David Levy, Turner’s head of sales and distribution, was promoted to the post of TBS president soon after Kent announced his departure last year.

Since then, Stuart Snyder, president and chief operating officer of Time Warner’s Turner Animation unit, has left the company, along with two other execs at the media giant.

“Change is happening across our company now,” Levy said in a memo to staff. “In the rapidly evolving media business environment, it’s imperative that we embrace and lead change in order to drive growth across our businesses.”