CNN Pressroom - CNN news executive Susan Bunda has been promoted to the newly created position of executive vice president of content development and strategy for CNN Worldwide, it was announced today by Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide. In her new role, Bunda’s responsibilities will include developing programming for CNN consumer platforms and marshaling CNN talent, resources and experience on wide-ranging business initiatives. She is based in Atlanta at CNN world headquarters and reports to Walton as a member of the CNN executive team.

“With this appointment we are empowering Sue to help lead our continuing integration of television and the Web as the future of our news business,” Walton said. “Sue’s mandate is to bring her creativity, professional relationships and 20 years of experience with CNN to bear on platform-focused content creation, resource allocation, audience development and brand resonance. I look forward to her perspective and input at the most senior level of our organization and to the positive impact she will have on our product, marketplace position and business results.”

“This is an exciting opportunity to build on the successes of CNN Worldwide,” Bunda said. “I believe in the people and the wealth of ideas here and look forward to finding ways to deepen the connection with our viewers.”

Bunda also will focus on identifying demographic trends and opportunities, strengthening the organization’s ties to consumer communities and connecting the CNN brand with appropriate philanthropy.

As senior vice president of news for CNN/U.S., Bunda oversaw the network’s Atlanta-based programming and all editorial content from CNN’s domestic bureaus, as well as the medical and science & technology units. She helped lead CNN’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the South Asia tsunami, Pope John Paul II’s funeral, the 2004 presidential campaign and elections and the continuing war in Iraq. She also was instrumental in the creation of I-Reports, content submitted from viewers from their cell phones, cameras and other devices.

Previously, Bunda was senior vice president of talk shows and guest bookings for CNN/U.S, an executive producer with the CNN Special Events Unit and executive producer of the legal analysis show Burden of Proof. She joined CNN in 1987 as a producer and writer. Earlier in her career, she was with WWMT in Kalamazoo, Mich., and WMAQ in Chicago.

Bunda majored in communications and minored in journalism at Western Michigan University. She is an executive member of Women in Cable Telecommunications and served on the inaugural diversity committee at CNN.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.