News, Just Another Cog In The Wheel - Updates

Michael Hedges September 12, 2022 Follow on Twitter

Mergers and acquisition do not, typically, bring on big changes or, especially, disruption. Shareholders want no part of that. They may not need more money but losing some is just not allowed. This is post-modern big business. Lifestyle preservation trumps everything. But mergers and acquisitions are necessary for financial refreshment, changing old money for new. Irresistible.

The transaction creating Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) was officially completed just five months ago. AT&T, the phone company, wanted, maybe needed to shed WarnerMedia, which it acquired in 2018. Discovery, Inc. was a television producer and distributor with a healthy spreadsheet. The deal nearly fell apart over debt restructuring. But that issue was fleshed out, the deal officially completed April 8. The saga was dutifully reported by media watchers everywhere. The combined new company employs about 30,000, said Business Insider (June 28), over several divisions and subsidiaries.

One of those subsidiaries is CNN Global, which includes the domestic US news channel CNN and CNN International available in more than 200 countries worldwide. CNN Films produces and distributes documentaries. The CNN website, revised in 2009, is available almost everywhere. Former CBS and NBC news executive Chris Licht was named chairman and chief executive on CNN Global in May by WBD chief executive David Zaslav. Most executives from the AT&T era departed.

For US media watchers, adept at navel-gazing, everything Mr. Licht has said or done has been scrutinized for clues into the channel’s new direction. This comes after early indications from Mr. Zaslav and major WBD shareholder John Malone that changes, perhaps radical, were inevitable. Mr. Zaslav killed the CNN+ streaming project designed by the AT&T crew as too expensive and fitting poorly with other WBD streaming TV plans. Long a “libertarian” standard bearer and pal of Rupert Murdoch, Mr. Malone groused about “returning CNN to objective reporting,” an emotive dog-whistle for the US right-wing. Very quickly, CNN significantly reduced using the “Breaking News” chyron.

Mr. Licht terminated the employment of well-regarded media critic Brian Stelter, known for eviscerating the escapades of Fox News, the right-wing channel of News Corporation, principally controlled by the Murdoch family. Also killed was the media criticism show he hosted “Reliable Sources.” Meeting with New York editorial staff members, Mr. Licht said plans for CNN were still fluid, reported Deadline (August 19). “There will be moves you may not agree with or understand. I want to acknowledge to everyone that this is a time of change. I know that it is unsettling.” CNN is now paying off Mr. Stetler’s contract, three years remaining at just under US$1 million a year.

Then last week CNN White House correspondent John Harwood was fired. He continued to criticise former president Donald Trump as a “dishonest demagogue” in his final appearance (September 2). Right-wing New York Post (September 7), also owned by News Corporation, revelled in CNN’s falling audience ratings, saying Mr. Licht “has his work cut out for him.”

Nobody doubts that. These are not easy times for the US news business, television or otherwise. After three years of Covid-19, months-on-months of uncertain economics and undeniably rowdy politics, not to forget bad weather, news fatigue has set in. News organizations have about a year to organize staff and structures for the 2024 US presidential campaign and elections, always important for news outlets. It is no small wonder that Mr. Zaslav wants to concentrate on escapist movies.

UPDATE1: Brian Stelter will not be sitting around simply watching TV during his three-year contract pay-out. To help him through this pre-mid-life crisis - he is just 37 years old - he has joined the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy as a fellow, noted the Harvard Crimson (September 13). He will “convene a series of discussions about threats to democracy and the range of potential responses from the news media.” The appointment brought high-fives from fans, wails and groaning from US right-wing standard bearers.

“Given events of the past few years, it’s never been more important to explore and explain the forces that are shaping both our media and our political environment,” said Shorenstein Center Director Nancy Gibbs in a statement. “With his long experience covering America’s newsrooms, their choices and their challenges, Brian will be a great resource for our students and scholars alike.” Columbia Journalism Review described Mr. Stelter’s abrupt termination from CNN as a “horribly timed defenestration.”

UPDATE2: “Hundreds” of Warner Brothers Discovery employees will face dispatch as soon as this week, reported the incomparable Axios media reporter Sara Fischer (September 12). Investors - meaning John Malone - were told roughly US$3 billion in “synergies” could be saved. About 30% of the impending layoffs are expected among ad sales teams worldwide.

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