{"id":1450404,"date":"2022-04-22T13:15:39","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T17:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1450404"},"modified":"2022-04-22T13:15:46","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T17:15:46","slug":"the-reason-cnn-plus-failed-isnt-what-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-reason-cnn-plus-failed-isnt-what-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"The Reason CNN Plus Failed Isn\u2019t What You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-reason-cnn-plus-failed-isnt-what-you-think%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1450404&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/DonLemon-e1631848758754.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Strange as it sounds, CNN+ could have succeeded. The streamer\u2019s rapid failure is a reminder that CNN fundamentally misunderstands its own brand. The network can\u2019t be neutral because its definition of neutrality is out of step with the public\u2019s\u2014and it can\u2019t be ideological for the exact same reason. This left CNN+ with nowhere to go.<\/p>\n<p>Chris Licht, CNN\u2019s incoming CEO, reportedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/04\/21\/media\/cnn-shutting-down\/index.html\">told<\/a> staffers in a meeting that CNN+ \u201chad an incredibly successful launch.\u201d Just days ago, Sara Fischer at Axios <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/discovery-cnn-plus-marketing-layoffs-jobs-b088c03c-b202-4756-8f5f-e64ee77b5095.html\">reported<\/a> executives at CNN and Discovery, the network\u2019s new parent company, disagreed on this question. That\u2019s likely because both camps disagreed on what success would look like for the streamer, which has about 150,000 subscribers as of now, according to Fischer.<\/p>\n<p>Reporting from Fischer and others indicates CNN rushed the launch of CNN+ before completion of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, again setting the streamer up for failure as new leadership inherited a product with which they were already displeased.<\/p>\n<p>Warner Bros. Discovery took the dramatic step of killing the streamer a month into its existence because the executive \u201ddidn\u2019t think the economics behind its subscription plan made sense,\u201d Axios reported on Friday. Those executives \u201cthought there weren\u2019t enough people willing to pay for subscription video news services to warrant the $1 billion investment CNN planned for CNN+ over four years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s certainly more complicated than CNN\u2019s politics but, as Fox Nation proves, streamers can thrive when they\u2019re <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drjasonnichols\/status\/1517241466908823553?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet\">lean<\/a> and when they successfully target niches. The same goes for cable channels. (And podcasts, newsletters, YouTubers, etc.) <\/p>\n<p>This is a consequence of the dynamic I <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2019\/03\/20\/rise-late-night-niche-fueled-americas-political-divide\/\">often<\/a> use to explain today\u2019s late-night comedy: Why is Stephen Colbert, the most partisan and least funny man in late-night, generally the top host? By doubling down on #Resistance politics, Colbert built a dedicated audience just big enough to win the ratings war in today\u2019s splintered landscape. He doesn\u2019t have to put up the same numbers as Johnny Carson, so he doesn\u2019t have to appeal to a wide swath of the public. <\/p>\n<p>CNN is trying to be Johnny Carson in a Colbert world. The outlet is failing miserably to fulfill that goal, which is outdated anyway. It\u2019s just a terrible business model, and even worse when you try to transfer it onto a new streaming platform with massive amounts of overhead. <\/p>\n<p>Amusingly enough, Licht knows this better than anyone. In fact, his last job was with Colbert. As a savvy businessman, it makes perfect sense that Licht is quitting Twitter and trying to wrestle the network back to some semblance of neutrality. <\/p>\n<p>As Fischer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/cnn-chris-licht-liberal-partisanship-31511ffe-747f-45c3-88dd-026ecf535224.html\">reported<\/a> in February, \u201cLicht and [David] Zaslav share a view that CNN was chasing prime-time ratings at the expense of the brand.\u201d The same story, by the way, predicted CNN+ would shrink before it launched. <\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a market for CNN+\u2019s content, the problem is that it\u2019s tiny. If you want to make money on a niche platform, you can\u2019t spend like it\u2019s a mass media platform. And if you want to be a mass media platform, your product can\u2019t feel like a niche platform. <\/p>\n<p>CNN\u2019s TV ratings are miserable, but the comparatively tame website remains one of the top news websites in the world. Jeff Zucker, CNN\u2019s disgraced former boss, loved the prime-time antics of Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon, both of whom embodied the network\u2019s false but sanctimonious sense of neutrality.<\/p>\n<p>Under Zucker, CNN ran an entire ad campaign purporting to be the network that could distinguish between apples and bananas, meaning they alone could be trusted to sort fact from fiction. They did this while perpetrating conspiracy theories and trafficking on an hourly basis in opinion and disinformation disguised as fact. MSNBC, on the other hand, more honestly embraced its ideological bent and did much better. <\/p>\n<p>Don Lemon is not Walter Cronkite, but CNN still treats him as a neutral anchor. Surely there are some overeducated wine moms who lap this up like boxed Zinfandel. But there certainly aren\u2019t enough of them to make a four-year $1 billion investment worth its while. By the time it launched, CNN+ had been lavished in $100 million.<\/p>\n<p>Licht is correct that CNN\u2019s brand used to indicate some sense of neutrality, of an outlet that could be trusted during breaking news events. He could try to turn CNN into an MSNBC competitor by dropping the false pretense of objectivity Zucker exploited and trying to get a big enough slice of that pie. But if he can still corner a niche\u2014Republicans, Democrats, and Independents\u2014that just wants news, he can probably get a bigger audience.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t actually know how big that audience is anymore. Part of CNN\u2019s problem stems from one of our deepest cultural problems: We no longer share a general consensus on foundational questions. Over at CNN, it\u2019s \u201cneutral\u201d to embrace preferred pronouns and corporate trainings on critical race theory because opponents of those ideologies are seen as bigots. <\/p>\n<p>As Saagar Enjeti of Breaking Points <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/11\/03\/the-new-contras-insurgence-against-legacy-media-is-only-getting-hotter\/\">told<\/a> The Federalist in 2020, \u201cThe highest readership in American history was whenever we had a burgeoning massive partisan news. That\u2019s actually how most people got their news, when we had huge levels of literacy, and we even had huge levels of news consumption, of voter participation.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlaces like the New York Times and the Washington Post and the mainstream media, which are carrying over their old veil of objectivity \u2026 but they have to post crazy critical race theory, because that\u2019s what their upper-middle-class white subscribers want to hear,\u201d Enjeti said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s fine, it\u2019s okay. Seriously. The part that bothers me is that they then claimed to be the arbiter of truth and the paper of record in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Enjeti is the hugely successful host of an independent news show that prizes authenticity over neutrality, understanding that\u2019s almost an impossible standard anyway.<\/p>\n<p>So how can the television network be neutral even if it really tries? This is the same problem that plagued Lemon and Cuomo. They honestly believe bananas are apples. That\u2019s how insulated and ignorant they are. I\u2019d say everyone at CNN should read \u201cComing Apart\u201d but they won\u2019t because its author has been condemned in the court of wrongthink.<\/p>\n<p>CNN+ is a casualty of the network\u2019s identity crisis, which is in and of itself a casualty of our national identity crisis. But without cynical and incompetent corporations like CNN, who told the country apples were bananas while pretending to do the opposite, we wouldn\u2019t be so deep in the hole anyway.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Emily Jashinsky is culture editor at The Federalist. She previously covered politics as a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner. Prior to joining the Examiner, Emily was the spokeswoman for Young America\u2019s Foundation. She\u2019s interviewed leading politicians and entertainers and appeared regularly as a guest on major television news programs, including \u201cFox News Sunday,\u201d \u201cMedia Buzz,\u201d and \u201cThe McLaughlin Group.\u201d Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Real Clear Politics, and more. Emily also serves as director of the National Journalism Center and a visiting fellow at Independent Women&#8217;s Forum. Originally from Wisconsin, she is a graduate of George Washington University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Strange as it sounds, CNN+ could have succeeded. The streamer\u2019s rapid failure is a reminder that CNN fundamentally misunderstands its own brand. The network can\u2019t be neutral because its definition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":554,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1450404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/554"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}