Axios: "CNN+ Looks Doomed"

And Taylor Lorenz looks like a melted waxwork figure of Dom DeLuise. Tell me something I don't know.

They're cancelling all external marketing for the streaming "service" (it's not a service, it's an imposition), which means they're not spending money to promote it. They'll only be promoting it where it's free to promote it, like on CNN's twitter feed.'

Or on CNN+ itself. Which no one watches.

They might run an ad on CNN, but I imagine they won't run many of those.

Warner Bros. Discovery has suspended all external marketing spend for CNN+ and has laid off CNN's longtime chief financial officer as it weighs what to do with the subscription streaming service moving forward, five sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: Inside CNN, executives think the launch has been successful. Discovery executives disagree.

CNN+ has roughly 150,000 subscribers so far.
Warner Bros. Discovery wants to eventually build one giant service around HBO Max.

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Executives are frustrated that new leadership is moving quickly to dismantle what they see as an eventual lifeline for the cable network.

CNN's original plan was for CNN+ to become profitable in four years by investing $1 billion into the service.

LOL.

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CNN+ launched on Roku last week, which should've prompted a subscription boost.

Why would that prompt a subscription boost? Just because garbage is available, doesn't mean people will buy garbage.

I have Roku. (Great service, lets you cut the cable cord almost painlessly!)

I haven't seen any ads for CNN Minus. (Roku advertises shows and services on the side of the boot-up screen.)

I just searched for new channels and did find it, but who is going to bother searching for this? It's like trying to find Taylor Lorenz's phone number to date her. No one wants to fuck an orc. They nasty.

Also, CNN Minus isn't branded as CNN Minus. It's branded as CNN.

So apparently people also don't want CNN itself! Because Roku is offering them CNN, not CNN Minus, and apparently that's not budging the subscription numbers, either!

But with marketing around the service suspended, there are concerns that growth will be short-lived. A point of pride amongst CNN staffers is how smoothly the app's rollout has been technologically.

You know what really helps apps roll-out smoothly? When almost no one is pinging the server to actually use it.

Discovery executives are focused mostly on returning CNN to its journalistic core, a point Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav reiterated in a town hall last week. That includes less of a focus on primetime perspective programming, and more of a focus on hard, breaking news. CNN+ features an array of soft news content, which doesn't align with Discovery's broader vision for CNN.

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CNN+ executives were originally hoping to attract 2 million subscribers in the first year and 15-18 million over four years, as Axios has previously reported.

We should definitely believe CNN. They seem to have a really good bead on reality.

Around $300 million has been spent and hundreds of jobs have been created to support the service.

I insist, it's not a "service," it's an imposition.

Chris Wallace will soon have more time to spend with his hair dye.

posted by Ace at 02:19 PM

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