Based on the reporting of Dylan Byers at Puck, the answer is both A and B (not sure they are that different). Zaslav, while respecting that he had no say until he officially too over, has made it clear he is looking for efficiency (he has promised $3B Of savings in cost synergies), and that clearly always included combining all of the new assets in one streaming service. There will be CNN content online, maybe a lot of it, but it will be on whatever they eventually call the new thing, which likely will eventually also fold in HBO.
The CNN people saw CNN+ primarily in terms of serving their news mission and ambition (to be the news organization of choice on the internet, supplanting the NYT). I think they were betting that if they committed CNN financially and publicly enough before the new guys came in, they would have no choice but to keep going. They lost that bet. The newsroom is seeing this as a demoralizing and disrespectful de-prioritizing of News within the new company. They may be correct, but I think it is too soon to tell. CNN+ Always seemed a little self important and deluded an idea, and I have never heard an explanation of how news, whose main attribute is timeliness, translates well to the archived, mended and on demand environment of streaming. Whatever Chris Wallace wants to do, it arguably will be more successful if somehow pushed to the consumer of John Oliver or Bill Maher, than as the furtive lynchpin of an all news streamer. On Fri, 22 Apr 2022 at 2:44 PM Paul Murray <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm puzzled that no one at CNN seemed to consider, "since we're being > acquired, maybe we should hold off launching this expensive venture until > we see what our new overlords think." Especially since their plans called > for losing $1b in the first few years, and the new company was already > going to be saddled with plenty of debt, courtesy of AT&T. > > I can only conclude that either a) they were high on their own supply and > convinced that CNN+ was a work of absolute genius that everyone would > recognize or b) they knew the new guys would pull the plug, and they were > determined to plunge ahead regardless. > > From what I have read, Discovery was wary for legal reasons of issuing any > directions to Warner pre-merger. > > On Friday, April 22, 2022 at 4:18:47 PM UTC-4 Tom Wolper wrote: > >> Journalists I follow on twitter say the consequences of a failure this >> large are going to reverberate in CNN for years. >> >> On Fri, Apr 22, 2022 at 12:20 AM Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Remember this picture trending of a bunch of white guys in charge of >>> CNN+? People, myself included, pointed out that in Atlanta, to not have ANY >>> other ethnic representation showed a profound disconnect from the potential >>> online audience. I can’t prove that’s why it failed, but… >>> >>> >>> https://twitter.com/morsea/status/1508645771066982403?s=21&t=-7ealiXbkRNUZFSbMb2T6A >>> >>> >>> On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 10:40 AM Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> I wish I had $300 million I could throw away like that. I was surprised >>>> to see that Chris Wallace’s show wasn’t about interviewing newsmakers but >>>> interviewing people like William Shatner and Joan Collins. Were they >>>> targeting nursing homes? >>>> >>>> >>>> On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 12:33 PM Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> All anybody wanted was access to a live stream for breaking news. CNN >>>>> execs couldn’t figure that out. >>>>> >>>>> On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 9:27 AM Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Hey Quibi: you've got company! >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> https://www.wsj.com/articles/warner-bros-discovery-is-shutting-down-cnn-streaming-service-11650556680?st=6x8pi3k7qmjr1rr&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>>> On Tue, Apr 19, 2022 at 3:28 PM 'Bob Jersey' via TVorNotTV < >>>>>> [email protected]> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>> At least till new bosses JB Perrette and Chris Licht get a chance to >>>>>>> look over things. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/cnn-plus-future-warner-bros-discovery-1235235816/ >>>>>>> (link) >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Licht begins at the company May 2nd, at which time he'll quit >>>>>>> Twitter. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> https://twitter.com/ChrisLicht/status/1516071114073645060 (link) >>>>>>> >>>>>>> B >>>>>>> >>>>>>> -- >>>>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>>>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>>>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, >>>>>>> send an email to [email protected]. >>>>>>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>>>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/74295e35-a209-4a80-9177-daaaa2efe4b0n%40googlegroups.com >>>>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/74295e35-a209-4a80-9177-daaaa2efe4b0n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>>>>> . >>>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, >>>>>> send an email to [email protected]. >>>>>> >>>>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CABru7%2Bdn%3D-of8uHM%2B_AbaM_Vs9YDzWBpZj5Qo49UjcdVAYK1YA%40mail.gmail.com >>>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CABru7%2Bdn%3D-of8uHM%2B_AbaM_Vs9YDzWBpZj5Qo49UjcdVAYK1YA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>>>> . >>>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Kevin M. 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