Chris Licht, President and CEO of CNN Worldwide, speaks on stage at Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront 2023 on the theater at Madison Square Garden on May 17, 2023 in New York City.
Kevin Mazur | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Discovery Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav could have chosen from a litany of reasons to fireside Chris Licht as head of CNN.
Licht, who left the network Wednesday after just over a yr within the role, struggled with leadership style, morale boosting, programming decisions on cover up former President Donald Trump and ultimately pride.
But Licht’s entire tenure at CNN could have turned out in another way had he persuaded Zaslav to remain at CNN+.
This may increasingly sound absurd. Hardly anyone watched CNN+ in its first two weeks of existence last yr. Zaslav and several other other Discovery executives, including the present head of Warner Bros. Streaming Discovery JB Perrette and now CNN chief operating officer David Leavy were skeptical about spending tons of of thousands and thousands of dollars on area of interest or underdeveloped content ideas like “Jake Tapper’s Book Club” and “Parenting Advice with Anderson Cooper.” Leavy is now a part of the chief team that can help Zaslav find a new CEO.
Zaslav believed that CNN+ was a waste of resources for a company burdened with $50 billion in debt that needed to extend free money flow and generate $3 billion merger synergies. But before making any decisions, he desired to hear Licht’s thoughts.
Licht was scheduled to start out work on May 2, 2022, but began a few weeks earlier to attend CNN+. During several virtual conferences, he met with CNN+ head Andrew Mors, CNN+ CEO Alex MacCallum and CNN chief technical officer Robyn Peterson, in accordance with people acquainted with the matter, who declined to be identified resulting from the private nature of the conversations. Perrette and Discovery Streaming CFO Neil Chugani (who would develop into CNN’s CFO) were also there.
In response to the participants of the meeting, Licht expressed his skepticism in regards to the programming of the product. The discussion centered across the viability of offering a product named after CNN without actually transmitting live cable television programming. Perrette told CNN+ executives to halt all marketing expenses and never launch on Roku.
While the CNN+ team walked out of the meetings assuming the streaming service was more likely to be killed, they sent the funds to Discovery executives. They planned to spend $440 million in 2022 and $550 million in 2023, people said. The applying called for CNN+ to show a profit by 2025 and break even on the cumulative investment by 2028.
Lower than three weeks later, CNN+ ceased to exist. Warner Bros. spokesperson Discovery declined to comment on the main points of the meetings.
CNN+ alternate reality
Had Licht persuaded Discovery’s executives to maintain CNN+, it’s possible his tenure at CNN would have turned out in another way.
Licht has experience within the production of entertainment programs. He launched “Morning Joe” on MSNBC and launched “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” on CBS. CNN+ would give him a canvas to create programs from scratch. It will also give him a growth story to present to the press and investors. If there have been no additional expenses, he could cut the budget but keep the bones of the subscription product alive by repeating creative ideas until he found something that worked. CNN+ launched at $4.99 a month, although prices could have adjusted.
Former CNN CEO Jeff Zucker, who left the network after revealing a workplace relationship months before the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger, had aspirations turning CNN+ into a subscription product much like The New York Times. It will take years, nevertheless it could also provide staff and management with a north star. The eye to CNN+ could have been a ready distraction from declining linear television rankings, which Licht could have dismissed as relatively unimportant in comparison with constructing the corporate’s future.
Jeff Zucker, left, and David Zaslav
Chris Kleponis | Bloomberg via Getty Images; CNBC
Without CNN+, Licht was left with a crumbling cable television network and without a coherent digital strategy. It’s a curse on the trendy media company.
Inside a yr on the job, Licht laid off tons of of employees and mostly moved on to existing CNN anchors and reporters to create a new morning show and primetime shows. His experiment to maneuver primetime anchor Don Lemon to the morning failed. CNN fired Lemon in April. Licht tried to maneuver Tapper, the afternoon anchor, to prime time but early rankings weren’t goodand Licht abandoned his plans.
A new leader with a vision
In Licht’s defense, his lack of future strategy mirrored Zaslav’s limited vision.
“When [Zaslav] called and offered me a job, told me what he was looking for on CNN,” Licht told CNBC last yr. “And I said, ‘That is precisely the type of network I’d wish to see.’ There is no daylight between his vision of this network and my vision of this network. The one reason I took this job is because he was in charge. I believed I could deliver it to him.”
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Zasław told Licht that he desired to make CNN less of an advocacy network and more easy information network. Warner Bros. board member Discovery’s John Malone told CNBC in 2021 that he “would really like to see CNN evolve back to the type of journalism it began with and really have journalists, which can be unique and refreshing.”
But CNN journalists claimed that he was a man of straw. They claimed to face for nothing aside from the reality. Several were offended by Malone’s comments as a disregard for their journalistic skills.
CNN may change the tone of its programming around Trump, who is the favourite for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. He can tone down the hyperbole and rhetoric surrounding his lies and exaggerations, depending on the situation.
Nonetheless, this is not a business strategy. CNN+ could have been doomed to be nothing greater than a fledgling streaming service. However it represented hope for how the brand could move into the longer term. The successful leader of CNN will need to search out a technique to increase viewership with compelling programming, while also supporting new digital businesses that bring revenue and a younger audience.
It’s possible CNN+ would never have launched, and Licht would have spent the last yr on a flawed concept that his Discovery bosses never liked – which might likely have gotten him fired anyway. Investors were playing on their noses resulting from increased spending on streaming services last yr, so any CNN+-related plan had to emphasise its long-term appeal.
The issue was without CNN+, Licht had a weak hand. CNN profit fell to roughly $750m in 2022 (including a $200m loss for CNN+) from $1.25bn a yr earlier resulting from a weak promoting market and falling cable subscription fees, in accordance with The New York Times. CNN ad revenue dropped by almost 40% under Licht, reported The Every day Beast, citing MediaRadar data.
The 2024 election and a stronger political ad market should help CNN improve its funds next yr, but “wait until 2024” is not a strong message – and it doesn’t provide a solution for 2025 and beyond.
If Zaslav wants to search out a CEO who will win the hearts and minds of employees and improve top and bottom lines, he’ll need to search out someone with a more holistic strategy than simply programming for cable viewers 55 and older.
Thus, Licht was doomed from the beginning.
Correction: Robyn Peterson was CNN’s chief technical officer. The sooner version contained the improper title. Neil Chugani was the CFO of Discovery Streaming. An earlier version had a typo in his name.
SEE: Chris Licht’s turbulent tenure
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