CNN+ is dead, but its owner is not giving up on global news ambitions

It looks like CNN+ was doomed before it was released.

The subscription streaming service, which launched on March 29 and closes on April 30, was not in line with a long-term strategy outlined by Discovery executives who took over just a week after the WarnerMedia service launched and plan to define it. Super service that combines fun and novelty in an attractive package.

“Some of this could have been avoided,” said JB, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming the hollywood reporter. Perett was also concerned that WarnerMedia’s management had come up with a plan to launch an independent service because he knew the new owners were skeptical of the idea.

Indeed, the night before CNN+ was launched on March 28, there was no indication that the service was in question. The company threw a lavish party at The Peak, an event space located 300 meters above the 101st floor of its Hudson Yards headquarters, where attendees feasted on goodies that included caviar-covered potatoes and miniature French fries.

Andrew Morse, the CNN CEO who spearheaded the launch of CNN+ (who said on Thursday he was leaving the company), toasted the launch, thanking (now) WarnerMedia CEO Jason Islar and CNN’s Jeff Zucker. As CNN co-founder Ted Turner said, he was the first subscriber to CNN+.

Just three weeks later, most CNN+ employees were told they would lose their jobs, something that CNN’s new CEO Chris Licht told employees was an “exceptionally uncomfortable situation.”

“It’s not their fault that the rug has been pulled back,” Licht added, noting that the company would lay off employees generously, for at least nine months, who couldn’t find work with the company elsewhere. .

But for anyone watching the CNN+ launch, Thursday’s decision was no surprise, and the future of CNN+ has always been HBO Max. In fact, a month before launch, THR WarnerMedia has conducted market research on the CNN+ bundle with HBO Max, with many sources saying that this bundle is likely to launch in the near future. Of course, it is now clear that there will be no package, just a service that will cover a wide range of WB Discovery content.

And WB Discovery CEO David Zaslav has been telegraphing his intentions for months, praising the work of CNN reporters and the value of CNN as a brand.

In an interview with CNBC in February, a month before CNN+ aired, he spoke of the “great ambitions” the United Company had for CNN, and when asked about CNN+, noted that news was a habit-building process. . ”. I think in terms of management, this is absolutely what we have to do. ”

But when he continued, Zaslav made it clear that his vision was for customers to compete with the streaming giants, not უ New York Times.

“The goal is for CNN to be seen everywhere on every device in the world, so that people wake up in the morning and come to us to find out what is happening in their country and in the world,” Zaslav said. “It’s powerful, which sets Netflix apart from Disney.”

Zaslav told CNN staff at meetings in New York and Washington that he saw CNN as a valuable asset to the company because of its “influence” and not because of its business, which generated about $1 billion in profits in the past. last year. “David Zaslav gave me a simple guideline: make sure CNN remains the world leader in NEWS while Warner Bros. is part of Discovery,” Licht wrote to the team in an introductory email in February, highlighting the equation information.

Then Perett told the team that while CNN+ will not be available next month, CNN as a news organization will play a crucial role in the company’s broadcast strategy, along with Gravity.

“In the complex streaming market, consumers want simplicity and a comprehensive service that offers a better experience and more value than individual offerings,” said Perett. “We have many exciting opportunities ahead of us in the broadcast space, and CNN, a world-renowned leading asset, will play a significant role there.

While the source cautioned that it’s still unclear what will end up on CNN and CNN+ shows, there’s an expectation that CNN will have its own “telejo” on HBO Max in the not-too-distant future. Zaslav’s comments, of course, suggest that live news will also be a part of that future.

Although CNN+ had a live stream every day, it was converted to the requested format, prompting users to watch it at will. Because CNN’s flagship channel is a crucial part of the pay-TV mix, the company didn’t want to compete directly with its flagship offering. If HBO Max’s offering on CNN has direct programming, you will either need to take a similar approach and use different CNN talent or find a way to transfer it to CNN’s live programming app, which will likely require negotiation. With pay TV partners. Other free streaming services, such as CBS News Streaming or NBC News, use their own studios and lead teams to deliver news, as well as repeat shows that air on the broadcast network.

Still, it remains to be seen what will happen to some of CNN+’s top employees at CNN+. Most notably, CNN hired Chris Wallace to host a series of Fox News CNN+ interviews, and Audi Cornish hosted NPR on CNN+ and hosted a podcast for CNN Audio. And it has hired non-journalistic talent such as social media influencers and former NBA player Rex Chapman, chef and author Alison Roman and New York University professor Scott Galloway to present programs that go beyond the traditional CNN wheel.

And current CNN talent like Jake Tapper, Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon have signed on to host streaming shows including Cooper’s Parent Show and Lemon Talk Show. What happens to all these shows is still unclear, and with talent under contract, it could take some time to correct.

Licht told CNN staff that some of the shows would end up on CNN or other WB Discovery networks or platforms.

“The decision-making process is already underway and we will deal with victims as quickly as possible,” he said.

CNN has spent nearly $300 million running CNN+ and plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building the service over the next few months and years. Perett told employees on Thursday that once the new leadership formally took over and made the decision to change course (before the company’s first official day), they pulled the plugs as quickly as possible.

And Zaslav, who is as comfortable with Wall Street as he is talented, definitely understands the philosophy of hedge fund managers.

“One of our lessons from past mistakes is to act in a timely manner when we discover new investment information that doesn’t fit our original thesis,” hedge fund icon Bill Akman wrote to his investors earlier this week, explaining why that his Pershing Square business was overloaded. By the way, his entire Netflix membership cost him around $400 million.

On Thursday, WB Discovery Jerry came to the rescue of a $300 million crook.