A bust out of the box
Bad timing, internal conflict doomed CNN+
CNN+ was doomed before it had a chance thanks to bad timing and a fundamental disagreement over strategy between previous management and the new corporate parent that was formed after a recent multibillion-dollar merger, according to a report.
The cable news network’s fledgling streaming service will cease operating at the end of this week following a decision by Warner Bros. Discovery to shut down all operations less than a month after its official launch.
“This is a uniquely s--tty situation,” newly installed CNN president Chris Licht told some 400 employees at the network’s New York City offices on Thursday when he announced the closure of CNN+.
According to CNBC, the streaming service died in its infancy because Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav thought it was pointless to offer a standalone news channel that people had to pay for when they could get the same content for free.
Zaslav took the reins of CNN and the other media entities in WarnerMedia’s portfolio after parent company AT&T decided to spin off the division and merge it with Discovery Communications. The deal was first announced in May of last year.
Delayed launch
CNN+ was the brainchild of previous CNN boss Jeff Zucker and his deputy, Andrew Morse, who was head of CNN’s global digital division. Zucker’s original plan was to launch CNN+ in January — giving the streaming service a three-month head start before Zaslav took over.
But technical difficulties kept delaying the launch and federal regulators approved the merger sooner than anticipated. Zucker wanted to launch CNN+ at the end of March, but he never got the opportunity to see his final product get off the ground because he resigned in early February after his years-long relationship with CNN chief marketing officer Allison Gollust became public.
Gollust would resign weeks later after her position within the company became untenable.
Sources told CNBC that Gollust’s absence hurt the network’s marketing efforts in promoting CNN+, which may have led to underwhelming subscriber numbers.