CNN+ is dead: Here’s what killed the streaming news service only a month after it began
that debuted on March 29, is dead, or at least dying: It will shut down for good on April 30.
Boy, did Chris Wallace back the wrong horse.
As with any implosion, there are a host of factors behind it, but the biggest is Discovery’s acquisition of WarnerMedia, CNN’s parent company. The merger became official April 8; the new company, Warner Bros. Discovery, wasted no time cleaning house.
Chris Licht, the incoming chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, said in a statement Thursday the decision was made “to cease operations of CNN+ and focus our investment on CNN’s core news-gathering operations and in further building CNN Digital.
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Watching CNN+’s first day: ‘So what are we doing here?’ (Hint: Talking about Will Smith)In the run-up to the launch of CNN+, its leaders stressed that the new service was not meant to be instead of, but in addition to, CNN. So much so, in fact, that a live feed of CNN wasn’t part of it, even during breaking news stories, thanks to the network’s agreement with cable systems.
That was its biggest shortcoming. If you call something CNN, users expect to be able to find news as it happens, no matter what platform they’re watching on.
There were some intriguing elements to CNN+: a massive library of shows, like every episode of “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,” or selected Larry King interviews. CNN anchor Jake Tapper had a book club; former Phoenix Sun Rex Chapman had an interview show.
All of that could live happily on CNN.com, and may have to. There was no must-see show or feature that would make anyone drop what they were doing and watch, live or otherwise. There just wasn’t much buzz.
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What’s next for Chris Wallace?
The big name was Wallace who, in a surprise move in December left Fox News for CNN+ and had been critical of his former network in recent interviews.
Rumors floated that he wasn’t happy with the number of subscribers CNN+ had garnered — around 100,000, according to some reports — and he wanted his own show on CNN proper.
Now’s his chance.
What becomes of Wallace — the vacated Chris Cuomo slot on weeknights makes the most sense for him — is perhaps the most interesting question. He was the subject of much discussion on social media after the CNN+ announcement.
ask Donald Trump tough questions or didn’t toe the MAGA line like so many other hosts were particularly gleeful.
Wallace isn’t perfect, but he differs from Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity in that he traffics in actual journalism, which does not require blind loyalty to anyone or anything. In fact, it rejects it.
There will be similar crowing among the right-wing crowd that no one wanted to pay extra to watch the woke mob destroy their version of America (or whatever the MAGA company line is these days), if they wouldn’t watch regular CNN for free in the first place.
Maybe. But there’s something telling in a statement from J.B. Perrette, the Warner Bros. Discovery International CEO and president of global streaming and interactive entertainment.
“Consumers are at the center of our strategy,” Perrette said.
And that strategy is to make the most money possible. No one starts any business in order to go broke, including media businesses. But when officials start tossing around words like “consumers” instead of “viewers” or “readers,” they make it clear that the bottom line is the bottom line.
The death of CNN+ wasn’t bad journalism. It wasn’t bad politics.
It was bad business.