Playbook PM: New bosses nuke CNN+

From: POLITICO Playbook - Thursday Apr 21,2022 04:42 pm

Apr 21, 2022

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After weeks of stories indicating that CNN+ was lagging behind internal expectations for new s, the fledgling streaming service is no more.

“Warner Bros. Discovery is shutting down CNN+ as of April 30 , marking one of the company’s first significant maneuvers since completing the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery less than two weeks ago,” Variety’s Brian Steinberg scoops. “The decision puts an abrupt end to an ambitious venture that people familiar with the matter say rankled DAVID ZASLAV, the new CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, from the start. Zaslav was annoyed by the decision of JASON KILAR , the former CEO of WarnerMedia when it was owned by AT&T, to launch CNN+ just weeks before Discovery was set to take over operations.

We obtained a copy of CEO CHRIS LICHT’s email to CNN staff, which went out just a short while ago. Here’s what he said:

“This decision is in line with WBD's broader direct-to-consumer strategy. In a complex streaming market, consumers want simplicity and an all-in service, which provides a better experience and more value than stand-alone offerings.”

CNN+ staff will have about three months to figure out their next moves: “As part of the transition plan, all CNN+ employees will continue to be paid and receive benefits for the next 90 days to explore opportunities at CNN, CNN Digital and elsewhere in the Warner Bros. Discovery family. At the end of that period, any departing CNN+ employee will receive a minimum of six-month severance (depending on length of service at CNN).”

Staff at CNN are already worried about layoffs, per sources we’re texting with over there. And for good reason. The company poured a ton of money ($300 million, reportedly) into building out a robust staff and drawing in top talent for the streaming service — from CHRIS WALLACE to KASIE HUNT to AUDIE CORNISH. What happens to the 400 people they just hired?

What comes next, via CNN’s Oliver Darcy and Brian Stelter: “David Zaslav, the chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery, has said that he wants to house all of the company's brands under one streaming service. Some CNN+ programming may eventually live on through that service.” More from Sam Stein and Max Tani

BIDEN’S NEW UKRAINE MOVES — President JOE BIDEN this morning formally announced (1) an $800 million package of security assistance to Ukraine, (2) an additional $500 million in direct economic assistance, and that (3) the U.S. would begin banning Russian ships from its ports in an effort to further isolate Russia from the world economy (though, as our colleagues Oriana Pawlyk and Daniel Lippman note, “the move is more symbolic than impactful: Russian-flagged ships account for less than 1 percent of cargo that arrives at American ports”).

Highlights from Biden’s remarks this morning:

— On the aid packages: “We have to accelerate that assistance package to help prepare Ukraine for Russia’s offensive that’s going to be more limited in terms of geography but not in terms of brutality.” More from Quint Forgey

— On the state of the war: “We don't know how long this war will last, but as we approach the two-month mark, here’s what we do know: Putin has failed to achieve his grand ambitions on the battlefield. After weeks of shelling Kyiv, Kyiv still stands. President [VOLODYMYR] ZELENSKYY and his democratic-elected government still remain in power. And the Ukrainian Armed Forces, joined by many brave Ukrainian civilians, have thwarted Russia’s conquest of the country.”

— On the U.S. response: “[Russian President VLADIMIR] PUTIN is banking on us losing interest. … [F]rom the beginning, he was counting on NATO, European Union, our allies and Asia, cracking, moving away. … He’s still betting on that. Once again, we’re going to prove him wrong. We will not lessen our resolve.”

The context: Today’s action comes as a new poll from Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds Americans are not satisfied with Biden’s handling of Russia thus far: “54% of Americans think Biden has been ‘not tough enough’ in his response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Thirty-six percent think his approach has been about right, while 8% say he’s been too tough.”

STATISTIC OF THE DAY — “Applications for unemployment benefits inched down last week as the total number of Americans collecting aid fell to its lowest level in more than 50 years,” reports AP’s Matt Ott. “About 1.42 million Americans were collecting traditional unemployment benefits in the week of April 9, the fewest since February 21, 1970.”

Good Thursday afternoon.

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ALL POLITICS

DEMS’ DISSONANCE — The NYT has a pair of stories up today that cut to the core of Democrats’ challenges as they prepare for a bruising round of midterms come November.

— On the American Rescue Plan: Democrats delivered nearly $2 trillion in pandemic aid meant to boost states all across the country after a couple of crushing coronavirus-laced years. But voters are mostly shrugging at the feat, Alex Burns reports . “Rather than a trophy for Mr. Biden and his party, the program has become a case study in how easily voters can overlook even a lavishly funded government initiative delivering benefits close to home. Mr. Biden’s popularity has declined in polls over the past year, and voters are giving him less credit for the country’s economic recovery than his advisers had anticipated.”

But why? “Ambivalence among voters stems partly from the fact that many of the projects being funded are, for now, invisible.” Plus, “Getting voters excited about the American Rescue Plan is a tall order when so many are preoccupied with the price of gasoline and the cost and availability of other basic goods — concerns the emergency-spending bill was not designed to address.”

— On the battle for democracy: “One party is running on democracy and elections in 2022, and it’s not the Democrats. Despite a broad consensus on the left that the country’s most revered institutions are in trouble, with President Biden and other leaders warning gravely that protecting voting rights and fair elections is of paramount importance, the vast majority of Democratic candidates are veering away from those issues on the campaign trail,” Reid Epstein and Jonathan Weisman write.

“Instead, they are focusing on bread-and-butter economic topics like inflation and gas prices. Continuing to win elections must come first, the thinking goes — and polls and focus groups show that the issue of voting rights is far down the list of voters’ most urgent concerns. … As that conversation has shifted, Democrats have largely ceded the political turf on the structure of American democracy to Republicans. … The parties’ wide gap in energy on elections and voting — which comes during a midterm year when Republicans are ascendant — worries some Democrats, especially Black Democrats who have been dismayed by the party’s inability to pass federal voting protections while in power.”

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE — Call it the Trump effect. GOP Rep. NANCY MACE is trying to get reelected in South Carolina after heavily criticizing the former president, facing a primary challenge from the Trump-backed KATIE ARRINGTON. Now, one of Mace’s colleagues is bucking tradition to endorse Mace’s opponent. Rep. JOE WILSON (R-S.C.) is formally backing Arrington and plans to fundraise and campaign with her, The State’s Caitlin Byrd reports — a decision that is “highly unusual in South Carolina, where most sitting Republican lawmakers either adopt an unspoken pledge of neutrality during the primary season or line up behind their fellow GOP incumbents.”

As David Drucker tweeted: “Well, this ought to make for an interesting weekly delegation lunch.”

WAR IN UKRAINE

— The latest on the ground: “Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that there is no need to storm the industrial area around the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol and those who choose to surrender should be treated in accordance with international conventions,” CNN’s Radina Gigova reports.

Putin also claimed that the city has fallen into Russian control. But officials in Ukraine are disputing the claim, and Biden this morning said that “there is no evidence yet that Mariupol [has] completely fallen.” CNN’s Allie Malloy has more

— The refugee situation: The Biden administration today announced a new plan to make “it easier for refugees fleeing Russia’s war on Ukraine to come to the United States from Europe while trying to shut down an informal route through northern Mexico that has emerged in recent weeks,” writes AP’s Ben Fox.

— Russian oil is still flowing: “Russia ramped up oil shipments to key customers in recent weeks, defying its pariah status in world energy markets. One increasingly popular method for delivery: tankers marked ‘destination unknown,’” WSJ’s Anna Hirtenstein reports.

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POLICY CORNER

COMING SOON — When Biden appears in Seattle for Earth Day on Friday, he will sign an executive order “laying the groundwork for protecting some of the biggest and oldest trees in America’s forests,” WaPo’s Anna Phillips reports. “Biden will direct the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to inventory mature and old-growth forests nationwide, three of the individuals said. He will also require the agencies to identify threats to these trees and to use that information to write policies that protect them.”

THE PANDEMIC

THE NEW COVID APPROACH — The Biden administration is taking much more of a hands-off approach to the pandemic in its third year, arguing that individuals can manage risk themselves and that cases are often so mild that the majority of people can live with it. It’s a calculation that logistically, and politically, the admin can’t put the rabbit back in the hat, so to speak. The downside: “That strategy comes with the risk that millions of Americans, including the healthy and vaccinated, could suffer long-term health effects from Covid infections. The policy could leave millions with a lifetime of little understood disease or medical complications,” Rachael Levy writes.

HURRY UP AND WAIT — If you are among the millions of parents of children under 5 waiting for clarity on when your kid can receive a vaccine, you might want to buckle in. “The Biden administration may now wait until as late as June to authorize a coronavirus vaccine for the nation’s youngest children,” sources tell Adam Cancryn. After a string of scientific setbacks and logistical concerns, regulators are “leaning toward postponing any action until the early summer, arguing that it would be simpler and less confusing to simultaneously authorize and promote two vaccines to the public, rather than green-lighting one on a faster timetable and the other down the road.”

DON'T MISS ANYTHING FROM THE 2022 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is excited to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage and insights from the 25th annual Global Conference. This year's event, May 1-4, brings together more than 3,000 of the world’s most influential leaders, including 700+ speakers representing more than 80 countries. "Celebrating the Power of Connection" is this year's theme, setting the stage to connect influencers with the resources to change the world with leading experts and thinkers whose insight and creativity can implement that change. Whether you're attending in person or following along from somewhere else in the world, keep up with this year's conference with POLITICO’s special edition “Global Insider” so you don't miss a beat. Subscribe today.

TRUMP CARDS

PICTURE’S WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS — Our colleague Daniel Lippman has a fun read on JON MCNAUGHTON , who he writes “is, perhaps, the most divisive political artist alive.” McNaughton’s “depictions of Trump have ricocheted across the internet, earning him equal parts mockery and praise. They’ve also earned him fans in the top echelons of political and media power. McNaughton says Trump himself tried to buy one of his paintings (it was already purchased by a ‘collector’ in Texas) and that SEAN HANNITY has bought between six and 10. So it stood to reason that with Trump having left the White House, McNaughton would find himself in lean years. He had, after all, lost his muse. But in a wide-ranging recent interview with POLITICO, the artist says he’s never been busier.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

CLIMATE FILES — “Can Portland Be a Climate Leader Without Reducing Driving?” by NYT’s Nadja Popovich and Brad Plumer, who “traveled to Portland, Ore., to find out why the city is struggling to reduce emissions from transportation.”

PLAYBOOKERS

SPOTTED at a reception celebrating the third year of the Hudson Institute’s Japan Chair H.R. McMaster on the rooftop of the Hudson Institute HQ on Wednesday night: Japanese Ambassador Koji Tomita, Tamaki Tsukada, Thomas Donohue, Ken Weinstein, Tetsuro Hisano and Abigail Hunter.

USTR ARRIVAL LOUNGE — Andrea Durkin is now assistant U.S. Trade Representative for WTO and multilateral affairs. She most recently was principal and founder of Sparkplug LLC.

TRANSITION — Grace Bobertz is now director of scheduling for Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). She most recently was director of scheduling for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Chris Edwards, founder of Edward Marc Chocolatier and a Bush White House alum, and Albert Fonticiella, VP of people at Peptilogics, welcomed twins Anastasia Sonia and Joaquin Christian this week in Alaska. Despite being born 20 minutes apart, the twins will have different birthdays since Anastasia was born at 11:55 p.m. on Tuesday and Joaquin was born at 12:15 a.m. on Wednesday. Pic

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