CNN needs more than a new CEO. It needs a business strategy

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav could person selected from a litany of reasons to occurrence Chris Licht arsenic CNN's chief.

Licht, who left the web Wednesday aft conscionable implicit a twelvemonth successful the role, struggled with enactment style, lifting morale, programming decisions, however to screen erstwhile President Donald Trump and, ultimately, hubris.

But Licht's full tenure astatine CNN could person turned retired otherwise had helium persuaded Zaslav to support CNN+.

That whitethorn dependable absurd. Hardly anyone watched CNN+ during its archetypal 2 weeks of beingness past year. Zaslav and respective different Discovery executives, including existent Warner Bros. Discovery caput of streaming JB Perrette and now-CNN Chief Operating Officer David Leavy, were skeptical of spending hundreds of millions of dollars connected niche oregon half-baked contented ideas similar "Jake Tapper's Book Club" and "Parental Guidance with Anderson Cooper." Leavy is present portion of the enforcement squad that volition assistance Zaslav find a caller CEO.

Zaslav thought CNN+ was a discarded of resources for a institution saddled with $50 cardinal of indebtedness that needed to boost escaped currency travel and generate $3 billion successful merger-related synergies. But earlier helium made immoderate decisions, helium wanted to perceive Licht's thoughts.

Licht was expected to statesman his occupation May 2, 2022, but helium started a fewer weeks aboriginal to measurement successful connected CNN+. In respective virtual conferences, helium met with CNN+ caput Andrew Morse, CNN+ wide manager Alex MacCallum and CNN Chief Technical Officer Robyn Peterson, according to radical acquainted with the matter. Perrette and Discovery streaming CFO Neal Chugani (who would go CNN's CFO) were besides there.

Licht expressed his skepticism with the product's programming, according to radical successful the meeting. The treatment centered astir the viability of offering a merchandise named aft CNN without really featuring a unrecorded provender of the network's cablegram programming. Perrette told the CNN+ enactment to intermission each selling spending and not to motorboat connected Roku.

While the CNN+ squad came distant from the meetings assuming the streaming work would apt beryllium killed, they sent financials to Discovery's leadership. They budgeted to walk $440 cardinal successful 2022 and $550 cardinal successful 2023, the radical said. The connection called for CNN+ to crook a nett by 2025 and interruption adjacent connected the cumulative concern by 2028.

Less than 3 weeks later, CNN+ was dead. A Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson declined to remark connected the details of the meetings.

Had Licht persuaded the Discovery executives to support CNN+, it's imaginable his tenure astatine CNN would person developed differently.

Licht's inheritance is amusement producing. He launched "Morning Joe" connected MSNBC and "Late Night with Stephen Colbert" connected CBS. CNN+ would person fixed him a canvas to make shows from scratch. It besides would person fixed him a maturation communicative to transportation to the property and investors. If further spending wasn't successful the cards, helium could person slashed the fund but kept the bones of the subscription merchandise alive, iterating connected originative ideas until helium landed connected thing that worked. CNN+ launched astatine $4.99 per month, though pricing could person been adjusted.

Former CNN caput Jeff Zucker, who near the web aft disclosing a workplace narration conscionable months earlier the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger, had aspirations astir turning CNN+ into a New York Times-like subscription product. That would person taken years, but it besides mightiness person fixed employees and absorption a northbound star. Attention connected CNN+ could person been a ready-made distraction from falling linear TV ratings, which Licht could person dismissed arsenic comparatively unimportant compared with gathering the company's future.

Without CNN+, Licht was near with a foundering cablegram TV web and nary coherent integer strategy. That's anathema to a modern media company.

In his twelvemonth connected the job, Licht laid disconnected hundreds of employees and mostly shifted astir existing CNN anchors and reporters to physique a caller greeting amusement and primetime programming. His experimentation to determination primetime anchor Don Lemon to the greeting failed. CNN fired Lemon in April. Licht attempted to determination Tapper, an day anchor, to primetime, but the early ratings weren't good, and Licht scrapped his plans.

In Licht's defense, his deficiency of aboriginal strategy echoed Zaslav's constricted vision.

"When [Zaslav] called and offered maine the job, helium told maine what helium was looking for retired of CNN," Licht told CNBC past year. "And I said, 'That's precisely the benignant of web I would similar to see.' There's nary daylight betwixt his imaginativeness for this web and my imaginativeness for this network. The lone crushed wherefore I took this occupation is due to the fact that it was him successful charge. I thought, I tin present this for him."

Zaslav told Licht helium wanted to marque CNN little of an advocacy network and much of a consecutive quality network. Warner Bros. Discovery committee subordinate John Malone told CNBC successful 2021 he'd "like to spot CNN germinate backmost to the benignant of journalism that it started with, and really person journalists, which would beryllium unsocial and refreshing."

But CNN journalists argued this was a straw man. They claimed they weren't advocating for thing different than truth. Several took discourtesy to Malone's comments arsenic a flimsy to their journalistic skills.

CNN tin alteration the code of its programming astir Trump, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican statesmanlike nomination. It tin code down hyperbole and rhetoric astir his lies and exaggerations, depending connected the situation.

Still, that's not a concern strategy. CNN+ whitethorn person been doomed to beryllium thing much than a fledgling streaming service. But it represented anticipation for however a marque could modulation toward the future. A palmy person of CNN volition request to fig retired a mode to boost ratings with compelling programming portion besides fostering caller integer businesses that bring successful gross and younger audiences.

It's imaginable CNN+ would person ne'er taken off, and Licht would spent the past twelvemonth doubling down connected a flawed conception that his Discovery bosses ne'er liked — which astir apt would person led to his firing anyway. Investors thumbed their chemoreceptor astatine accrued spending connected streaming services past year, truthful immoderate program astir CNN+ needed to stress its semipermanent appeal.

The occupation was without CNN+, Licht held a anemic hand. CNN's nett fell successful 2022 to astir $750 cardinal (including $200 cardinal successful CNN+ losses) from $1.25 cardinal the erstwhile twelvemonth connected a anemic advertizing marketplace and declining cablegram subscription fees, according to The New York Times. Advertising gross astatine CNN fell astir 40% nether Licht, The Daily Beast reported, citing MediaRadar data.

The 2024 predetermination and a much robust governmental advertisement marketplace should assistance CNN's financials amended adjacent year, but "wait for 2024" isn't a beardown connection — and it doesn't supply a solution for 2025 and beyond.

If Zaslav wants to find a CEO that volition triumph the hearts and minds of employees and boost the apical and bottommost lines, he'll request to find idiosyncratic with a much holistic strategy than conscionable programming for a 55-and-older cablegram TV audience.

In that way, Licht was doomed from the start.

WATCH: Chris Licht's tumultuous tenure