Rosenbaum, a self-described news junkie,
couldn’t figure out what CNN+ offered that
was unique and vital to him. He said he never
even considered paying the monthly $5.99 fee
to subscribe.
He said it had “lots of famous faces that I get
other places.”
CNN+ has a handful of its own news programs,
documentaries and talk shows and big names
like Chris Wallace, Anderson Cooper and
Jemele Hill but, because of cable and satellite
contracts, could not offer a streamed version of
what most people know CNN for, the television
network’s continuous news coverage.
People can find streaming news in several
places — ABC, CBS and NBC all have their own
services, for example — for free.
“In launching a new business, timing is
everything and their timing couldn’t have been
worse,” said Allen Adamson, cofounder of the
marketing firm Metaforce. “Streaming services
were in a bubble and everyone knew there was
a limit to how many streaming services they
would get.”
When Discovery bought out CNN’s previous
corporate owner, AT&T, many observers
believed CNN+ would eventually be
absorbed into a larger app that also had
entertainment offerings.
It never got that far, leaving some of its
employees shell-shocked at the meeting
when they were told the service would
abruptly close.
One of the service’s biggest champions, former
CNN chief Jeff Zucker, was bumped out of