MUMBAI: CNN?s new CEO Jeff Zucker has said the ?challenge for us is how to make CNN more essential, how to make it one of the four tyres on the car.?

Speaking publicly for the first time since taking the top job in January, Zucker told the listeners at an Atlanta Press Club lunch that the broadcaster needs to be more than a spare tyre in the trunk. ?You only take it out when you really need it. It?s not one of the four tyres on the car all the time.?

He has also said that CNN will continue to be based in Atlanta. ?I know that people know that I am the first Chief Executive of CNN not based in Atlanta. I did not make my first luncheon with the Press Club of New York. Atlanta will continue to the home of CNN, and Atlanta will continue to be the backbone of CNN.?

He conceded that he did not have a magic solution on how to make CNN better and more competitive. "I do not have all the answers. I do not even have half the answers."

The issue facing him is what will define CNN in its fourth decade. Previous defining moments have included its coverage of the first Gulf war. ?What will define the fourth decade? That is part of why I was really attracted to CNN. What will CNN be and how will it be defined in its fourth decade??

He spoke about the efforts that CNN has made to be diverse when it hires people.