In his first public comments since taking over as president of CNN Worldwide, Jeff Zucker spoke at a packed Atlanta Press Club luncheon Monday. Of CNN, Zucker says the network needs to be more than “a spare tire in the trunk,” according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution‘s Rodney Ho, who is a board member of the Press Club.

“You only take it out when you really need it. It’s not one of the four tires on the car all the time. The challenge for us is how to make CNN more essential, how to make it one of the four tires on the car.”

Zucker chose Atlanta for a very good reason: “I did not make my first luncheon with the press club in New York,” he said. “Atlanta will continue to be the home for CNN and continue to be the backbone of CNN.” On the issue of diversity, Ho writes:

A questioner noted the departures of Soledad O’Brien and Roland Martin: “In the three months I’ve been at CNN, we’ve hired five correspondents and four of them have been diverse.” He meant non-white. (Former longtime WSB anchor) Monica Pearson asked him how many were black. He said two.

Zucker, who has not done any interviews since taking over, says, “I want our work to speak for itself.”

CNN contributor and TV One host Roland Martin–who is leaving the channel after a number of years as a contributor–unleashed some criticism at his soon-to-be-former bosses on HuffPost Live today.

Martin told Marc Lamont Hill that when he joined CNN he intended to get his own show at some point. He noted that whenever he would guest host hours, the ratings would hold up. Instead, he now finds himself walking out the door at the channel.

“You have largely white male executives who are not necessarily enamored with the idea of having strong, confident minorities who say, ‘you know, I can do this. I am simply saying ‘give folks a shot,” Martin said. “We deliver, but we never get the big piece, the larger salary, to be able to get from here to there.”

• The London Evening Standard reports that staffers in Al Jazeera’s London office are being forced to relocate to Doha, Qatar, or lose their jobs. “They had thought that they would be moving from Knightsbridge to The Shard — not the desert.”

• SNL Kagan has posted its annual look at media company revenues and profits. Winners include Disney, which remains number one, Time Warner and Thomson Reuters. News Corp., Discovery Communications and McGraw Hill were down.

• The National Association of Black Journalists has named Roland Martin its “journalist of the year.” Martin will be ending his run at CNN in a few weeks, but also hosts “Washington Watch” on TV One and contributes to a number of other media outlets.

Tampa Bay Times TV critic Eric Deggans writes for Poynter about cable news and minorities. Specifically, he asks why whenever plum anchor jobs arise, journalists of color are so often overlooked. He uses the imminent departures of Soledad O’Brien and Roland Martin at CNN as an example, while noting that neither FNC nor MSNBC have made any effort to add diverse voices in a long time.

More than anything, the lack of diversity in some anchor shuffles may speak to a lack of development for anchors of color in general. Maintaining diversity in the face of shrinking resources and cost-cutting often requires specific effort; if people aren’t being groomed for bigger jobs, they may not be ready when those prime positions open up.

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CNN’s new president Jeff Zucker continues to shake things up at the channel, particularly when it comes to the network’s political contributors. The latest news is that longtime contributor Roland Martin will be leaving the channel when his contract expires in early April.

.@emarceg yes, last day at @cnn is April 6.

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) March 19, 2013

Martin has been a regular on CNN since 2007, and also hosts “Washington Watch” on African American network TV One. FishbowlDC first reported that Martin’s tenure at the channel might be short lived back in January. He follows Erick Erickson, Mary Matalin and James Carville out the door at the channel.

Following the bombshell day on Tuesday, more rumors, news and opinions continue to trickle in regarding CNN.

FishbowlDC reports that the network will be pruning more political contributors from its lineup, naming Roland Martin and Donna Brazile as likely candidates:

Should the calls come down, Brazile likely wouldn’t be too shell-shocked. She’s already got a sweet gig with ABC. Martin, on the other hand, has his “Washington Watch” program on TV One and is a senior analyst for the Tom Joyner radio show.

Deadline reports that CNN has acquired a new weekend series from Ridley Scott called “Crimes of the Century.” The series will examine major news events using cinematic style:
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• CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviews Mitt Romney in The Situation Room today, live at 6pmET. “Lots to discuss,” Blitzer tweeted.

• NBC Publishing released its newest eBook today. Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and U.S. Intervention features more than an hour of NBC News archival reports and interviews and a video introduction by NBC’s Tom Brokaw.

• The season four premiere of TV One’s Sunday public affairs show Washington Watch with Roland Martin was up 35% vs. last season’s premiere. While dwarfed by the network shows, its growth is reflective of a recent PEW report showing more Black viewers (50%) get their news from TV than Whites (34%) and Hispanics (27%).

• Fox News and Time Warner Cable have struck a long-term affiliation agreement after weeks of negotiations. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Los Angeles Times reports Fox News will get upwards of $1 per subscriber for the first year, with subsequent increases to follow.

• As the political conventions get closer, CNN national campaign correspondent John King is profiling the potential GOP vice-presidential picks. “The Contenders” series kicks off with former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty today on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

• NBC News is partnering with TV One, a news and entertainment channel for Black viewers, for special coverage of the election and the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. The “TV One: One Vote Matters” coverage, the first joint effort between the two organizations, will be anchored by NBC’s Craig Melvin, who will be joined by TVOne host and CNN contributor Roland Martin.

Aretha Franklin says she’d be a good judge on “American Idol,” despite what Kathie Lee Gifford thinks.

On Tuesday’s FHOT, Gifford suggested Franklin is too old to judge the FOX singing competition.

“If they are looking for a younger demographic, there are a lot of kids out there (who) actually don’t know who Aretha Franklin is. It’s sad, but they don’t,” Gifford said.

In an email sent to CNN’s Roland Martin, the Queen of Soul demanded a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T, and research.

While I enjoy Kathie Lee and Hoda daily, her assessment is totally wrong! I’m surprised Kathie Lee did not research my worldwide celebrity audience! She’s usually right on top of things with a great sense of humor, but she’s totally wrong this time. She should research me before she speaks about me. I’m sure she thought she was right; still enjoy Hoda and Kathie Lee!

So this morning Kathie Lee apologized and clarified, “There is nobody in the world like her. My point was there is a whole generation of kids, some kids don’t know who Barbara Streisand is, who Frank Sinatra is…”

“She’s still mad at you,” added Hoda Kotb.

The lesson here: next time Kathie Lee, “You better THINK!”

Today on mediabistro.com, we ask CNN contributor Roland Martin “So What Do You Do?” From Twitter dust-ups, to diversity in newsrooms, to the ability of journalists to be objective, Martin doesn’t hold back:

Looking back, what are your thoughts now on your month-long suspension from CNN for your Super Bowl tweet about David Beckham?

First of all, my thoughts were the same then — I was cracking on soccer and that’s what I talked about. It happened, you deal with it and you move on. My deal is, if you spend significant amounts of time freaking out and going nuts, you’ll simply go crazy. My philosophy is very simple: You keep it moving.

Are you surprised by the lack of diversity on the Sunday morning news shows? Which minority talking heads should the networks be targeting for their programs?

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