Epic business failures — the Edsel, Quibi, New Coke — have some new company. CNN's parent company ordered the CNN+ streaming service shut down before it had even completed a month of operation.
It's a spectacular failure, with the idea of a paid streaming service for news questionable and unproven to begin with, and it was also a victim of a corporate leadership change. The service started last month only weeks before a new leadership team at Warner Bros. Discovery took over, one that had nothing to do with the idea's development and quickly made clear they thought it was wrong-headed.
Reporter Josef Adalian said “CNN+ in its formative phase feels somewhat like the Quibi of streaming news,” he wrote. “Lots of money has been spent, big stars are onboard, but it’s hard to figure out just what the service is supposed to be and why a large number of people will want to pay for it.”
