CNN plans to deploy a “sequel” of digital subscription services as part of a large -scale overhaul aimed at stopping the decline of a traditional television company confronted with new pressure while Donald Trump administration aims at the media which he perceives as hostile.
Mark Thompson, who was Appointed director 18 months ago to overthrow CNN, told Financial Times that the media group would make its debut at least one streaming product this year, with one or more expected in 2026.
Thompson hopes to create a digital subscription company in CNN which will generate more than $ 1 billion in annual income by 2030. CNN made $ 1.7 billion in operating income last year, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence Estimations.
CNN's mother company, Warner Bros Discovery, gave Thompson more than $ 70 million to execute its reversal in the television channel, which has not seen little “Trump bump” experienced by rivals such as Fox News.
Thompson has described the launch this year as a “non-New digital product, although it can be heavy in information”, initially in the United States before bringing them to customers around the world. The service should have more features and lifestyle content.
“We are starting to build a series of digital products, mainly with a subscription thesis,” he said, adding that attempts to introduce a payment wall for some CNN online content were ahead of Target while being “early the first days”.
“I don't think this kind of thing is easy. All our industry is going through a revolution. The landscape continues to go through the stress and strains of a huge disturbance of the public and the media in general. ”
Launched in 1980, CNN was the first chain of New TV 24 hours a day in America and quickly became extremely popular. But the traditional cable company is now threatened while people turn to digital options.
“We want to find a range of ways to meet different needs and audience requests. And I am firmly convinced that portfolios have a certain number of powerful advantages, that you can maximize the way you meet the needs of people in a more precise way,” Thompson told CNN New York.
“We have fairly interesting ideas on things that are not conventional television, but which will be part of the offer as well as the news.”
Thompson was previously Managing Director of the New York Times, where he also helped to supervise a digital transformation, creating a subscription company based on news, cooking and games that have improved the fortune of the newspaper.
The initiates of CNN expect that it uses a similar game book, with a range of services for subscribers outside Core News in lifestyle and entertainment.
CNN has already added a salary wall to certain stories on its website last year. Thompson said that it was “early” to judge the success of the decision, but that the “model is developing in terms of … we learn from our subscribers on consumption models. This is the first step ”.
A previous iteration of a CNN + subscription streaming service was quickly killed when Warnermedia merged with Discovery in 2022.
CNN total viewers in the United States have decreased by around 8% in the first three months of the year despite the fire hose of the news generated by Trump's return to the White House, while the right-wing rival Fox jumped 48%, according to Nielsen figures.
The initiates of CNN claim that its audience has been struck by certain democratic viewers who are completely moving from the news. Thompson said that the share of CNN staff to the cable public had increased compared to 10 and 20 years ago, but that the “pie” overall becomes smaller for linear cable television because more and more viewers are switching to digital alternatives.
Thompson told the FT that she “tells you about the commentary on the news in this country a bit, that the norm for new objectives is sometimes considered a strategic weakness”.
He added: “I finally believe that the position for a world news issue is a competitive advantage, not always a tactical advantage in a given moment.”
Since his entry into office, Trump has repeatedly attacked the media, including CNN. In a recent speech, he accused the diffuser, with MSNBC, of writing “97.6% bad about my subject” and of being a “political arm of the Democratic Party”, adding that “in my opinion, they are really corrupt and are illegal”.
The White House has taken a certain number of actions seen as part of a war against the independent media, in particular Check access to its press room. He limited the Associated Press of access to the oval and the Air Force One after the Wire agency refused to use the name “Gulf of America” instead of the Gulf of Mexico. Voice of America journalists were take on administrative leave After Trump, closed the American agency for the world's media.
Thompson said he believed that he “strongly” believed that the AP should be authorized to continue to report “largely and as a precious partner”, and that “a self-organization of people covering Washington DC, and entities like the association of White House correspondents are really useful in the coordination of coverage”.
He said that CNN's work was “to report on the government of the day in whatever the country” in an exact way that is correct, is right, does not work under its own prejudices or prejudices, and does not want to (far) to keep power in accounting “.
However, he added: “We must not slip into the idea that part of our work is to oppose political forces as such. Our work consists in covering the political competition, rather than heading towards the ring and starting to punch ourselves. ”
