But industry experts and a number of CNN staffers said they felt that the storied news channel could emerge stronger as a leading part of this new company because of what happened on Friday (local time) \u2013 and also because of what didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
The good news<\/p>\n
Jeremy Goldman, a senior director at the market research firm eMarketer, said that while CNN didn\u2019t get \u201cinvited to the Netflix party\u201d, this could be the best outcome for the cable news brand.<\/p>\n
\u201cCNN is no longer a political football, its 2026 budget is approved and growing and the spin-off gives the network the focus and stability to pursue its digital transition without being weighed down by streaming-first economics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That apparent stability comes after a season of intense speculation that Paramount Skydance, the entertainment giant that chief executive David Ellison formed this year through the purchase of CBS owner Paramount, would end up with CNN if his company\u2019s reported bid for all of Warner Bros Discovery prevailed.<\/p>\n
Ellison, the son of billionaire Oracle co-founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison, was quick to counter commentators who cast his purchase of CBS as a conservative takeover of a major news brand. \u201cI do not want to politicise our company in any way, shape or form,\u201d he told reporters the day the deal to buy Paramount closed in August.<\/p>\n
In October, however, he bought the conservative opinion and news website the Free Press for US$150 million and named its founder, Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News. Weiss\u2019 tenure so far has been marked by layoffs, shifting resources and a culture clash.<\/p>\n
Unsettled staff<\/p>\n
In that context, a Skydance Paramount purchase was a prospect that in recent weeks had unsettled some CNN staffers, several of them told the Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren\u2019t authorised to discuss Warner Bros Discovery\u2019s business decisions publicly.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing swallowed by Paramount would\u2019ve meant merging with CBS \u2013 obvious cuts, re-org, etc,\u201d one CNN staffer said in an email. \u201cThis way we can continue on our own plan [and] define our own future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some short-lived relief I think that it wasn\u2019t Paramount, and Bari won\u2019t be our boss,\u201d another staffer said.<\/p>\n
But the business outlook ahead is still unsure. Tammy Madsen, a professor of management at Santa Clara University\u2019s Leavey School of Business, called the CNN spin-off a \u201cfinancial burden masquerading as a declaration of editorial independence\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cStripped of the studio\u2019s cashflow, its value proposition shifts from a global news leader to a lean, politically charged target,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a smaller, less complex entity, Discovery Global will be able to focus more attention on performance metrics for properties such as CNN. The question isn\u2019t whether CNN can survive, but whether it can maintain its standards when every dollar of journalistic investment is visible and scrutinised.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Netflix news means<\/p>\n
Staffers said they have faith in CNN chief executive Mark Thompson\u2019s vision for the company, including a new subscription product that launched in October. In an email on Friday (local time) to staff, Thompson thanked them for their patience during what he called an \u201cexhausting, momentous year\u201d and tried to allay their worries about the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been asked by many of you what today\u2019s news means for us. And the answer is that it will enable us to continue to roll out our strategy to secure a great future for CNN by successfully navigating our digital transition,\u201d Thompson wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, I can\u2019t promise you that the media attention and noise around the sale of our parent will die down overnight. But I do think the path to the successful transformation of this great news enterprise remains open.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But industry experts and a number of CNN staffers said they felt that the storied news channel could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[74,3471,95,696,12510,2748,59304,110605,3468,2026,77654,156,3273,28636,1094,111,139,69,5270,13673,110604,437,36314,1316],"class_list":["post-171132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-after","tag-among","tag-and","tag-announced","tag-blockbuster","tag-bros","tag-cnn","tag-conspicuous","tag-deal","tag-discovery","tag-elements","tag-entertainment","tag-future","tag-included","tag-netflix","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-one","tag-purchase","tag-spinoff","tag-tv","tag-warner","tag-when"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}