CNN chief media correspondent and anchor Brian Stelter explained Friday why CNN+, “a worthy venture” and “outstanding experiment,” according to him, abruptly came to an end Thursday.
“At the end of the day, if you buy something, if you buy a giant media company, you get to do whatever you want with it,” Stelter said Friday. “But it does mean there’s a lot of suffering for employees, and frankly, disappointment among subscribers as a result.”
Chief digital officer and executive vice president Andrew Morse blamed the streaming service’s cancellation on the recent merger between CNN’s parent company WarnerMedia and Discovery in an internal memo.
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“The vision the new leadership has for the future is different than the one we’ve had,” Morse wrote. “That’s OK. That’s all part of change.”
Morse himself will be leaving the company after a transition period.
“I got to say thank you to all the subscribers and supporters of this service, of CNN+,” Stelter said on his program. “This is a worthy venture. This was an outstanding experiment.”
“It was led by an amazing team of producers, directors, engineers, technicians, including the ones making this program happen right now,” Stelter went on. “We still have some incredible guests and stories to tell, and we’re grateful you’re here to watch.”
“It’s too early to know if this product, if this service was a success or a failure,” Stelter said. “You know, you’ve got all the haters today saying this thing was a failure. I don’t know if we can even ever assess that because it just simply didn’t have enough time because of the management’s change in direction.”
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CNN+ employees will remain on the payroll for an additional three months, according to a report from Stelter. Should they not receive another position within CNN, they will receive an additional six months of severance pay. Stelter called the severance package “extensive,” meanwhile, online, he shared a Twitter thread of open positions specifically for ex-CNN+ staffers.
