CNN+ parent company fires CFO, cuts all marketing for new platform

The parent company of the struggling CNN+ streaming service has suspended all external marketing spend for its news streaming platform and fired CNN’s chief financial officer, according to Axios.

Warner Bros. Discovery, a Manhattan based corporation, was created April 8 through a merger of educational TV giant Discovery with WarnerMedia, which owned Warner Bros. film and TV studios, CNN, HBO and Cartoon Network.

Executives at Discovery were frustrated that CNN+ had launched before the merger because they had plans to integrate its content with HBO Max, reported Axios, citing sources familiar with the matter.

CNN+ was launched on Mar. 29 and has only garnered around 150,000 subscribers. Executives at CNN had expected to bring in 2 million subscribers in its first year and 15-18 million after four years, when they expected the service to become profitable.

$300 million has been spent on CNN+ as of Apr. 12 of a planned $1 billion over four years.

WarnerMedia’s former parent company AT&T and Discovery avoided direct communication about CNN+’s rollout over fears of regulatory scrutiny of its merger, according to Axios. This was complicated by the ouster of CNN head Jeff Zucker over an undisclosed relationship with a colleague.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has stated that he plans to refocus CNN on journalism and willing to forgo short-term profit to do so. This includes less of a focus on primetime personality-driven programming and more of a focus on breaking, hard news.

CNN is the third most watched cable news network behind Fox News and MSNBC, bringing in about $1 billion in profit.

Zaslav has appointed Chris Licht, a veteran producer and showrunner of “The Late Show with Steven Colber,” to oversee the channel’s future.