God likes Humor. Libs of TikTok is alive, CNN+ is dead...

[DKW 86 7,419]

CNN+ Is Headed to the Train Station – RedState

The entertainment publication Variety was on the pulse this morning, dropping this tease of a bombshell:

 

Warner Bros. Discovery is shutting down CNN+ and is expected to provide details to staffers Thursday, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Spokespersons for CNN and Warner Bros. Discovery could not be reached for immediate comment.

Chris Licht, the incoming CEO of CNN, sent a memo to staffers Thursday morning about “an important meeting” to be held at noon, and is at that time expected to inform staffer about the decision, these people said. Licht has already told Andrew Morse, the CNN executive vice president who oversees the newly-launched streaming-video outlet, of the decision, these people said. Morse could not be reached for immediate comment.

It’s around that time on the East Coast now, and I would love to be a fly on the wall.

You love to see it.

It must have struck fear in Brian Stelter’s corpulent heart to have to post this:

 

In less than 10 days, an entire arm of this media empire will be driven to, “the Train Station.”

As my colleague Nick Arama reported, CNN+ had barely taken flight before the new management had it in their crosshairs.

With the launch of CNN+ seeming to have run aground — it has barely any viewers and that has Chris Wallace throwing tantrums — one has to wonder if that might get rethought and/or cut, too.

After less than a month, CNN+ was nowhere near 200,000 subscriptions.

 

Because, who wants 24-7 Chris Wallace, Don Lemon, or Jemele Hill. Seriously?!

 

 

Obviously, Chris Wallace is hardest hit. He can’t go back to Fox News with his tail between his legs. Or can he?

 

The handwriting was on the wall when Warner Bros. Discovery decided to pull the marketing dollars from CNN+.

In a move that manages to even frame Quibi’s epic 2020 failure in a more positive light, Warner Bros. Discovery has suspended all external marketing for CNN Plus, just three weeks after the subscription streaming service’s launch.

Awkward.

And as our media contributor Brad Slager reported on Tuesday, CNN’s new management would have preferred that a rollout for CNN+ never happened:

The new management team was not happy with the rollout of CNN+ ahead of the merger, but certain realities made a delay untenable, such as the amount of talent that had been signed at high prices and would then be on the sidelines getting paid to not produce content. What is clear is that CNN+ was not meeting projections, much of that partly due to unrealistic projections being set.

“Unrealistic,” like assuming they had an audience that would actually care.

So much wrong. But totally on brand for CNN.

Sayonara!!!!

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Jon Levine

 

@LevineJonathan

I think more people attended the CNN+ launch party than ultimately subscribed

11:08 AM · Apr 21, 2022

 

CNN assumed that people actually cared what their people talk about. A reported $350M up in flames in one month...

[CoffeeTiger 5,087]

It is was very stupid for CNN to push forward with the launch right before a big company merger and management change. 

Discovery's Executives don't want multiple different streaming services..they wanted to consolidate all their streaming properties into one thing, but because of regulatory laws they weren't able to strategize or communicate with CNN management before the merger officially happened. I think CNN+ was probably a bad idea all around from the very start, but the merger with Discovery is the main reason that the service is shutting down immediately and not being given at least a year or so.  

 

People like Chris Wallace will be fine. The big names aren't like the normal employees, they have major contracts, and I'd fully expect Wallace to either get his own show on CNN or move to Discovery's streaming service. I know RedState wants to stick it to the "traitor" Chris Wallace, but he's going to find his landing spot. 

[bigbird 60,451]

We talked a year or two ago about the potential rebound effect of the lurch to the left. I think we're seeing some effects of that a bit more often now.

[I_M4_AU 7,785]

2 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Chris Wallace, but he's going to find his landing spot. 

He will, no doubt.  It’s the support staff of CNN+ that will find themselves in a world of hurt by CNN+ shutting down.  Those are the people that will suffer the most.

[CoffeeTiger 5,087]

9 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

He will, no doubt.  It’s the support staff of CNN+ that will find themselves in a world of hurt by CNN+ shutting down.  Those are the people that will suffer the most.

yep, I feel bad for them and hope the ones that aren't retained can maybe get some assistance in job hunting and/or some connections at other companies for them to apply at. 

They're saying all the CNN+ employees will remain on payroll for 3 more months  and then those that aren't retained will get a severance pay of 6 months, so they are at least being given some sort of cushion and not left totally out to dry.  

[I_M4_AU 7,785]

I know shutting down CNN+ is a complicated issue, but I wonder if this was part of it?

 

 

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CNN+ failed because very few signed on for the free trial and fewer still signed up after seeing how bad it truly was. It had zero to do with a merger etc. it was straight up awful, tone deaf, clueless. 
 

Enjeti and Ball were laughing their asses off it a month before the rollout. CNN has no clue what a streaming service client looks like. Breaking points is wildly successful. CNN+ was poorly conceived, executed, and staffed. It was an easy call from a distance that it would fail

Edited April 22, 2022 by DKW 86

[SLAG-91 1,483]

13 things that lasted longer than CNN+

Yeah, it's TownHall, so some won't appreciate some of the snarky asides.

New Coke...was working at Burger King the summer that it was introduced. I wasn't a Pepsi fan, so New Coke didn't do it for me, and a lot of other people.

It was a huge blunder, but Coke owned it and turned lemons into lemonade (or, more accurately, New Coke into Old Coke), by marketing the return as "Coca-Cola Classic. Red, White and You."