Ex-Turner Broadcasting leaders still shape arts and media in Atlanta

You can’t go very far in Atlanta without running into alumni of Turner Broadcasting.

There are telltale signs. They’re typically extroverted, big on ideas and not cautious or guarded with their language. A few might have some deep eye bags, too, typical of the battle scars that come from working in television. At its peak, Ted Turner’s homegrown media empire had thousands of employees based in the city working across its various networks, from CNN to Turner Classic Movies, TNT and Cartoon Network.

Within the last two decades or so, mergers, acquisitions and drastic shifts in the media landscape have sliced and diced the company, which, for now, lives under the larger Warner Bros. Discovery brand. A number of these jobs were either eliminated or moved to New York or California. Many Atlanta-based Turner employees relocated or moved on to new roles in other industries.

But the Turner executive DNA lives on in many Atlanta organizations.

Three major arts and media institutions in the city have former Turner team members at their helm. The Atlanta History Center counts Pola Changnon, the former general manager and executive vice president with TCM, as its chief content officer. The High Museum of Art’s chief communications officer is Natali Johnson, who spent more than a decade with the company, most recently serving as the vice president of brand and program marketing for TNT, TBS and truTV. WABE, the NPR affiliate station, is run by Jennifer Dorian, who held branding and strategy roles at Turner and served as general manager of TCM.

Their combined decades of experience at the media powerhouse primed them for their new community-facing roles, equipping them with skills in analyzing and understanding audiences, building brands and navigating tight deadlines and budgets.

“Turner was always looking for sharp people who were committed and giving it their all. I think those are the folks who have landed in different places in Atlanta, because we all went through that prolonged boot camp where we could be scrappy,” Changnon said, who joined Turner in 1998 as a supervising producer of Cartoon Network Digital. “I think that scrappy, entrepreneurial, brand-focused mindset is applicable to every other space in Atlanta.”

Turner Broadcasting, which Turner founded in 1965, was a disruptor in the entertainment industry. It pioneered basic cable, having created one of the first superstations, the first 24-hour cable news network and a portfolio of brands offering programming far beyond what broadcast networks were offering. It had a different value proposition to advertisers, too — that they’re just as good as the broadcast networks, but more affordable.

There was a spirit of rebellion in Turner and his employees, Dorian said. Everyone enjoyed being outsiders and rebels and was all competing with each other to push the envelope.

“The psyche of people at Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta was, from the very beginning with Ted, was that we’re insurgents,” Dorian said. “We’re disrupting this industry, and we’re going to do it better than the legacy players.”

Natali Johnson, pictured here on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, is now the chief communications officer of the High Museum, but only after more than a decade working with Turner Broadcasting. (Jenni Girtman for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Throughout the next 40 years, Turner continued to grow, and it became a stepping stone for people working in Atlanta’s media industry. And being the only national TV game in the city, unlike Los Angeles or New York, Turner cultivated loyalty between the company and its employees.

Turner had a culture of recruiting strong creatives and the best thinkers, said Johnson, who joined the company in 2007 as a marketing research analyst. It was a big company, so everyone tried to stand out. Workers were constantly pushing themselves to make their presentations stick so they could see their ideas all the way to the end.

Nothing was too zany. Johnson was once part of a team that created an elaborate barge covered in scattered luggage, airplane seats and plane parts to promote TBS’s sitcom “Wrecked.” The fake deserted island was tugged by boats to different locations.

Turner also encouraged its workers to develop new skills. As new networks were added, so were new divisions and roles. There was always a sense of wanting to learn more and apply this knowledge in different ways, Changnon said. If someone showed new appetite for learning, it was rewarded with new opportunities.

“There was a lot of that entrepreneurial sensibility, and that all comes from Ted Turner,” Changnon. “His imprint as an entrepreneur influenced everything, like ‘Absolutely invest, but do it wisely.’ Don’t overspend. Instead, overthink.”

There were long days. Many in the building worked well after dark. Everyone would push the boundaries of work, but there was always payoff, Johnson said. No one was forcing them to be there.

“A lot of the times, it was a project that you truly cared about, or you thought was interesting. And it didn’t always feel like it was long hours,” Johnson said.

In the years leading up to Changnon’s departure in 2023, she said there was an ongoing feeling that things weren’t what they were years beforehand. This was in the years following AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, which included Turner Broadcasting, in 2018. In 2022, WarnerMedia merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery.

Budgets became tighter. The company had to lay off workers, and teams became smaller, but the expectations were still high. There was less of an emphasis on taking new risks, Changnon said. There was debt to be paid down. TCM and the other Turner networks were looked at as places to deliver consistent revenue, rather than places to invest.

“The idea of trialing things, experimenting with things, went away with less revenue,” Changnon said.

Pola Changnon poses for a photo at the Atlanta History Center, Wednesday, July 30, 2025, in Atlanta. Pola Changnon, the former general manager of Turner Classic Movies, is now the chief content officer of the Atlanta History Center. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)