With CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, now up for sale, there’s uncertainty inside the network about whether a leadership change could upend the newsroom. That was the case in April 2022 when David Zaslav, fresh off taking control of the newly merged WBD, scrapped the just-launched CNN+, a $300 million streaming subscription venture.
“I was there,” acknowledges Alex MacCallum, CNN Worldwide’s executive vice president of digital products and services. MacCallum left CNN in 2023 for the Washington Post, only to return again the following year under CEO Mark Thompson to help spearhead CNN All Access, a $6.99-a-month subscription tier launching Tuesday that features domestic and international livestreams, access to the network’s vast series and documentary library and video dispatches from anchors and correspondents, along with CNN’s text-based reporting.
“I believe very strongly that CNN, to preserve its future, needs to go direct-to-consumer and build out both the capabilities and a compelling offering,” MacCallum told TheWrap. She said that if there is a change in CNN’s ownership, the process should take at least a year given regulatory reviews. “So we’ll have a chance to have this out in the market and be able to learn and adjust as we go,” she said. “The timing will be different.”
CNN’s current leadership may have more runway for All Access than its predecessor, but the network still faces the daunting task of convincing consumers to pay for content they are more accustomed to getting as part of a cable bundle. Cable TV subscribers will get access to this new streaming tier as part of their bundle, so for CNN to succeed, it needs to attract cord-cutters and a younger generation of viewers who grew up with YouTube rather than a cable box.
That’s a challenge made more daunting by the very real issue of subscription fatigue, with a plethora of major publications, niche news sites and Substacks vying for audience dollars. CNN, which draws eyeballs during moments of big breaking news, also needs to persuade consumers that All Access needs to be a part of their daily media diet. Despite such challenges, CNN arguably has no other choice in a world of cord-cutting but to offer a product that consumers might pay for, and given the three-plus years since it’s latest major streaming initiative, time is of the essence.
Speaking to TheWrap, MacCallum addressed these hurdles and stressed how All Access is a “core offering,” whereas “CNN+ was a complimentary product to CNN,” featuring a slate of shows not on the cable channel. All Access provides significantly more live coverage than CNN+, including the majority of content airing on CNN’s domestic channel, along with CNN International for eight hours a day, and access to the entirety of CNN programs after they air.
The app will also feature news round-ups and timely videos jumping off trending topics. Anchors, correspondents and editors will answer viewer questions in vertical videos, a way to leverage the network’s talent in a more personality driven way. Jake Tapper’s recent TikTok breakdown of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension gives an indication of what to expect.
All Access will include live feeds of news events, such as trials, which, while given airtime on cable, may not get wall-to-wall coverage. For instance, CNN will surely report on next week’s New York City mayoral election as part of its election night coverage, but MacCallum said All Access will additionally feature a dedicated stream with commentators breaking down the hotly contested big-city race.
“We can basically cover events live in a way that we kind of can’t do on our core stream, but we will be able to do within this experience,” she said. The goal, she added, is to “make this a destination.”
In addition to making “the best mobile news product in the world” and utilizing CNN’s extensive live video capabilities, MacCallum said CNN also has to give users a “reason to stay” beyond breaking news.
CNN has already been beefing up its digital operation this year into different coverage areas, recently scooping up style writer Rachel Tashjian from the Washington Post. MacCallum also cited weather as another category they expect to lean into on the app.
All Access is an impressive product, and a more substantial offering than CNN+. But will people pay?
MacCallum said that they’ve seen research indicating “there are 18 million people in the United States alone who are not cable customers, who are interested in CNN, and who have indicated a willingness to pay for something from us.”
Now, 18 million would be an astonishing success — and very unlikely, at least in the short-term. The New York Times, the gold standard for how a large-scale newsroom can build a successful, digital subscription model, boasts nearly 12 million total subscribers, with a goal of 15 million by 2027. And that’s while providing a slew of popular non-news lifestyle offerings, from Cooking to Games.
MacCallum declined to say publicly how many subscribers CNN is seeking, but presumably they’ll aim for far more than the audience tuning into CNN+. According to the Times, “fewer than 10,000 viewers were watching at any given time.”
The questions facing CNN as it envisions a direct-to-consumer future won’t be settled with Tuesday’s launch, as MacCallum stressed that this is “the starting line for this product” and “we’re going make it better over time.”
