Employees of CNN + CNN + ‘s short – term streaming service were left “terrified and furious” by management after the decision to discontinue the service after just three weeks – describing it as an “absolute failure.”
CNN’s new CEO Chris Licht – who did not officially take office before May 2 – told employees on Thursday that CNN + was coming to an end.
The service didn’t start until March 29, and producers had lured talent, including former Fox News presenter Chris Wallace, MSNBC’s Casey Hunt, actress Eva Longoria and chef Alison Roman.
The end of CNN + was welcomed by Fox News figures such as Greg Gutfeld, as well as critics of the network, including Donald Trump and his son.
Insiders estimate that the network has spent $ 300 million to launch and between $ 100 million and $ 200 million on advertising. CNN has planned to spend more than $ 1 billion on CNN + over four years, two people familiar with the matter told The New York Times.
David Zaslav, who has been leading the newly formed huge media giant since the beginning of this month, was expected to make changes.
But a veteran employee told The Washington Post, “We expected a few fingers to be cut off, not the whole hand.”
David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery took the helm of the newly formed media company on April 8.
Chris Wallace, 74, joined Fox News in 2003 and left to host CNN +. His former colleagues were overjoyed at the demolition of his new home
CNN + stars, including Casey Hunt (third from left), Chris Wallace (next to Hunt) and Anderson Cooper (third from right), are seen on March 28 to celebrate the launch of the streaming service.
The new streaming service was heavily advertised, but had only 150,000 subscribers
The 300 employees, who have already started working for CNN +, were outraged by the announcement on Thursday – although the network said it would try to transfer them to open positions in the company.
Redundancies are likely for people who have not been recruited; they will receive at least six months in compensation, according to reports.
Many in the service thought they were not given a chance.
“A lot of people left their stable jobs at CNN to go to CNN + and then pulled it out right after it started,” a source told The New York Post.
“Everyone is terrified and furious.”
Sarah Sidner, who moved from LA to New York to host a CNN + show, said at a meeting Thursday that the decision to end it so soon is “mind-boggling.”
Another source complained to the newspaper: “Great people will probably be saved, but what about everyone else, the people who do the real work?”
Another was even duller.
“It’s devilish madness, it’s crazy.
“This literally rivals Quibi’s epic crash,” said an insider, referring to the short-lived streaming platform, which went out of business seven months after launching in April 2020.
Licht announced the news on Thursday at a meeting held in a television studio on the 19th floor of CNN’s headquarters in New York.
After his speech, according to The Washington Post, Sarah Sidner, a longtime CNN correspondent who moved from Los Angeles to New York to host a CNN Plus show, stood up and told the shocked crowd, “This is mind-boggling. to be completely honest.
She later tweeted, “It’s over. It was the shortest and most amazing #CNNPlus team trip. ‘
Hunt, who is said to have been lured to leave MSNBC on a $ 1 million contract, tweeted: “The journalists I have had the privilege of working with at CNN Plus are world-class.
“I am so incredibly proud that I can call them colleagues.
“If your organization wants a chance to take advantage of their talents, my DMs are open
“This is * my * job for the foreseeable future.
She added: “Some of you are asking about me. I’m proud to be on the CNN team. I’ll be fine. It’s not about me right now.”
Sources told The Post that CNN was “overdoing talent” by giving Wallace $ 9 million a year.
It is now thought that he will probably take over the slot at 21:00 on CNN, which remained empty after the dismissal of Chris Cuomo in December.
Donald Trump was among those celebrating the death of CNN’s new venture.
“Congratulations to CNN + for their decision to REJECT immediately due to lack of ratings or viewers in any way, form or form,” Trump said in a statement issued Thursday.
“It was like an empty desert, despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars and hiring low-ranking Chris Wallace, a man who tried so hard to be his father, Mike, but he lacked the talent and anything else needed to be a star.
“Anyway, this is just another piece of CNN and fake news that we don’t have to deal with anymore!”
His son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted a mocking meme showing famous dancing gravediggers from Ghana with the CNN logo on the coffin.
The glossy CNN + launch party was just three weeks ago, on March 28th
Fox News presenter Greg Gutfeld joked many times on Thursday about the death of CNN +
Fox’s Greg Gutfeld filmed Chris Wallace on The Five tonight: “The Democratic bench is thinner than Chris Wallace’s CNN Plus demo.” pic.twitter.com/zzwXiAEN9X
– Kevin Tober (@ KevinTober94) April 21, 2022
The hosts of Fox News also rejoiced over the battles of their rival network.
Greg Gutfeld joked many times about the situation on Thursday, commenting during a discussion with Democratic leaders: “The bench on the Democratic bench is thinner than Chris Wallace’s demonstration tape from CNN +.”
He later added: “BLM did to black people what Chris Wallace did to CNN +. He lured them with a promise and then dumped them on the side of the road.
In another case, he joked: “Many of these solutions that come from the left are unreliable, there are solar panels or windmills. See CNN + how much money they invested in wind energy by hiring Chris Wallace.
During the last segment, Gutfeld aired a clip of a buffalo roaming the city.
“I haven’t seen a celebrity in a while,” he began. “As we know, CNN + has closed, so you see a lot of their talent on the street.
“For example, I just looked at Sixth Avenue and who did I see just hanging out in front of the tavern?” Nothing but, you guessed it? Chris Wallace, just wandering around.
The decision to close the streaming service, Licht told employees, was not due to a failure in their park.
So far, the service has attracted 150,000 subscribers, paying $ 5.99 a month, and is at a pace to reach its first-year subscription targets.
CNN + was unable to broadcast the same newscasts as CNN due to existing contracts with cable providers. But they had encouraged their stars like Anderson Cooper to take part in a parenting show and had given Don Lemon a chat show.
Still, CNN’s new parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery – officially created by a merger on April 8 – was not impressed by the numbers.
At any given time, fewer than 10,000 people watched the service, two people familiar with the numbers told The New York Times.
“It’s not your fault you took the carpet out,” Licht said Thursday, according to a newspaper review.
“The new owner came in and said, ‘What a beautiful house!’ But I need an apartment.
“And that doesn’t take anything away from this beautiful house you built.” I am proud of that, I am proud of this team and I am gutted by what this means for you.
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