Ted Turner, the outspoken media tycoon who founded CNN and transformed rolling television news, has died aged 87 in Lamont, Florida, Turner Enterprises has confirmed.
The company said theCNN founder, whose wealth was most recently put at about $2.5 billion (£1.83 billion), died 'peacefully, surrounded by his family' on Wednesday after a long struggle with Lewy body dementia.
The news came after a long period in which Turner had quietly withdrawn from the frenetic dealmaking that made his name. Once known as 'The Mouth of the South' and 'Captain Outrageous' for his boisterous public persona, he spent his later years between doctors' appointments and his vast ranches, surrounded by children and grandchildren.
Turner had disclosed in 2018 that he was living with Lewy body dementia, a progressive neurological disorder, and one source article also said he had been hospitalised with a mild case of pneumonia in early 2025 before recovering at a rehabilitation facility.
Turner Enterprises said a private family service will be held, with a public memorial to follow.
He is survived by five children, 14 grandchildren and two great‑grandchildren. They inherit not only an estimated $2.5 billion (£1.83 billion) fortune but also sprawling landholdings across the United States and Argentina, a chain of Ted's Montana Grill restaurants, and a web of charitable foundations focusing on conservation, nuclear disarmament and the United Nations.
Turner's death has revived scrutiny of the single decision that defined his career: the decision to build CNN.
In 1980, when network news was still an evening half‑hour filmed in New York or Washington, he launched a 24‑hour cable outlet from Atlanta, betting that audiences would watch live coverage at any time of day.
Many in the US media establishment thought he was delusional. Former colleagues recall him admitting he knew 'diddley‑squat' about news. What he did know was television economics. Having inherited and expanded his father's billboard company, he had already turned a struggling Atlanta station into cable's first national 'superstation', packed with old sitcoms and live sport after he bought the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks.
CNN's early years were scrappy. Technical hiccups were frequent and some in the industry sneered at 'Chicken Noodle News.' Turner, who said he lived for a decade on a couch in his office inside CNN's Atlanta headquarters, kept pushing.
Source: International Business Times UK
