CNN+ Goes Minus, Prince Harry Rules the Press, Vanity Fair’s Meta Move

PULLING THE PLUG: Well, that was fast. CNN+ — the much-hyped streaming service — is shutting down less than a month after launching with grand ambitions to hire 500 employees and spend $1 billion.

Andrew Morse, CNN’s head of digital and the architect of the streaming service — who presided over a splashy launch party last month — will step down. CNN has already spent about $300 million on the service, for which it lured a cadre of boldface names including erstwhile Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, NPR’s Audie Cornish and chef and food writer Alison Roman.

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Incoming CNN chief executive officer Chris Licht, who was installed by Discovery’s David Zaslav to run the newly consummated Warner Bros. Discovery, broke the difficult news to employees Thursday afternoon during an all-hands meeting.

“CNN will be strongest as part of [Warner Bros. Discovery’s] streaming strategy which envisions news as an important part of a compelling broader offering along with sports, entertainment, and non-fiction content,” said Licht in a statement. “We have therefore made the decision to cease operations of CNN+ and focus our investment on CNN’s core newsgathering operations and in further building CNN Digital.”

In acquiring CNN-parent Warner Media from AT&T (the $43 billion deal closed April 8), Discovery leadership agreed to assume $55 billion in debt. Executives have said they would find $3 billion in savings annually — presumably by eliminating obvious redundancies. But that still leaves a lot of debt to repay.

The streaming strategy for the new company — which includes the assets of HBO Max and Discovery+ — is to group all of the company’s brands under one service. And some CNN+ programming may migrate to that new service while other shows or hosts (particularly Wallace and Cornish) are likely to find homes on the flagship network.

In his own statement about the shuttering of CNN+, J.B. Perrette, head of Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming & Interactive, alluded to the competitive nature of the crowded market: “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, and, for the company, a more sustainable business model to drive our future investments in great journalism and storytelling.”

Well before the close of the deal, Zaslav signaled that he viewed CNN’s value as a global news enterprise first. These statements — not to mention overt criticism from leading Discovery shareholder John Malone of CNN’s slide into partisanship in primetime — could signal a reset at CNN. And the shockingly swift shutdown of CNN+ — which will cease operations April 30 — is the clearest evidence yet. But what remains unclear is why former CNN executives, including Morse and former CNN CEO Jeff Zucker and former Warner Media CEO Jason Kilar, plowed ahead with a service that was so obviously out of step with the strategy publicly avowed by the people who would be their new corporate overlords. (Legally, Discovery executives were barred from communicating with their Warner Media counterparts until the merger closed.)

Among U.S. services, CNN boasts an unrivaled global news footprint, one that has been on prime display since the outset of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine. And the company has long had a robust digital operation. But CNN+ was conceived as something different — a service that would not offer live news but rather interview programs, documentaries and unscripted shows. In other words, the same menu of indistinct programming consumers can get from myriad other services for which they are already paying.

So the one thing that sets CNN apart, and its main value proposition, was the exact thing CNN+ would not have. (Part of this was out of necessity as CNN is still bound by lucrative affiliate contracts.) Zaslav and Licht understood this going in. How they reassure CNN employees who have endured two mergers in quick succession, the scandal-tainted exit of Zucker and his deputy and paramour Allison Gollust, and the inevitable departures of additional executives and rank-and-file employees of CNN+ remains to be seen.

Political anchor Kasie Hunt, who was hired away from NBC News last year by Zucker and has a show on CNN+, alerted her Twitter followers to the availability of the “world class” journalists at CNN+ who will soon be losing their jobs.

“If your organization would like a chance to benefit from their talents,” she tweeted, “my DMs are open.”

Licht is well aware of the pain the decision has already caused and its impending ripple effects. “It’s not your fault that you had the rug pulled out from under you,” he told shocked employees on Thursday. “This is a uniquely s—-y situation.” — MARISA GUTHRIE

HARRY IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Queen Elizabeth turned 96 on Thursday, but in the British press that milestone was overshadowed by Prince Harry’s interview with NBC, where he made some controversial comments about their relationship.

During an interview from the Netherlands, the prince told NBC’s Today program that he has a “really special relationship” with his grandmother, and that they discuss things that she “can’t talk about with anybody else.”

Speaking to Hoda Kotb on the sidelines of the Invictus Games, which he founded in 2014, Harry talked about the Queen’s “great sense of humor,” and said he visited her last week partly to ensure “that she’s protected, and got the right people around her.”

The tabloids and broadsheets didn’t take his words lightly, with the comments dominating Thursday’s front pages, and feeding the opinion columns and editorials.

“Palace Shock at Harry, Duke of Delusion,” said the Daily Mail, which also carried a new image of the Queen with her horses to mark her birthday.

“On the day the Queen released serene birthday portrait, guess who spoiled her joy once again…,” said another headline in the Mail, which accused Harry of “breathtaking arrogance” and added that Buckingham Palace was left “reeling” following the prince’s comments.

The Mirror led with stock photos of the Queen and Harry and a headline that read, “Prince’s Jubilee Dither: Are You Coming or Not Then?” referring to Harry’s indecision about attending the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, which run from June 2 to 5.

Quoting royal sources, newspapers reported earlier this week that the Queen has asked Harry and his family to stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with the rest of the royals during the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony on June 2.

Trooping the Colour is a ceremonial military parade that marks the British monarch’s “official” birthday and takes place each year in early June. The Queen and her family usually appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

With lockdown restrictions lifted, this year will be the first time since 2019 that the event will take place in public, with the family in attendance, once again.

The Daily Express attempted to balance its front-page coverage with the new picture of the Queen, and a headline that declared: “Happy 96th birthday Ma’am…Here’s to your glorious rei(g)n!”

A second front-page headline read: “Prince Harry’s Ultimate Royal Snub,” referring to Harry’s failure, during the NBC interview, to say whether he missed his father Prince Charles and his brother Prince William now that he no longer lives in England.

The headline also referred to Harry’s refusal to confirm whether he plans to attend the Jubilee.

The prince, who no longer carries out official royal duties, is in the process of suing the U.K. Government’s Home Office over its decision not to allow him to pay for police protection for himself and his family while visiting the U.K.

Harry did not attend his grandfather Prince Philip’s memorial service on March 29 because he said he feared for his and his family’s safety.

The Daily Star ran with the headline “The Ego Has Landed,” and a story based around Harry’s comments, saying: “The world’s shyest egomaniac says he is personally looking after the Queen and ensuring the ‘right people’ are around her. Chas and Wills must be thrilled.”

The Times of London, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian all published the new picture of the Queen on their front pages.

The Times ran a front-page headline saying, “Harry Snubs Charles in TV interview,” while The Telegraph ran a small cover story saying “Jubilee security fears may mean no Harry.”

The Guardian didn’t sensationalize or even try to parse Harry’s comments. Instead, it published a straight news story based on the NBC interview.

The new picture of the Queen was taken last month on the grounds of Windsor Castle. She’s wearing a long, olive green coat with a cape and is shown standing between her two fell ponies, Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale.

On Thursday, Buckingham Palace also released a black-and-white picture of Queen Elizabeth at two years old on Twitter. It’s part of a series of 70 images of the monarch that have been released daily in the run-up to the June celebrations.

The British press will be gearing up for more royal headlines next week when Tina Brown’s new Penguin book, “The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor, the Truth and the Turmoil,” is released on April 26.

The book looks at the tension between Princes William and Harry, and between Harry and his stepmother Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. It also examines the relationship between Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein, and Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to move to California and distance themselves from the royal family. — SAMANTHA CONTI

VANITY FAIR GOES META: On the occasion of the Venice Biennale, which this year is scheduled to run from Saturday to Nov. 27, Vanity Fair Italia is launching a project in the metaverse, called “MetaVanity.”

The project in collaboration with Valuart is inspired by the historic Pantheon in Rome, with a central space surmounted by an open dome, as in the original Roman monument, and 12 exhibition areas where users can enjoy various experiences. For instance, by downloading the free app Hadem, visitors will be able to move freely between the artworks and interact in creative and unusual ways in an apparently traditional cultural environment.

Vanity Fair’s meta space will feature 19 works from well-known artists in the international digital and crypto art scene such as Max Papeschi; Emanuele Dascanio; Quasimondo; Matt Kane; Skygolpe; Coldie; Jesse Draxler; Federico Clapis; Edo Bertoglio; Mimmo Dabbrescia; Neurocolor; Billelis; Fabio Giampietro; Vhils; Kyle Kemink; Luna Ikuta; Dangiuz; Gammatrace, and Stefano Contiero.

“In this space, where creativity has no boundaries, all the excellences, uniqueness and stories that Vanity Fair has always told in its pages, on its website, on its social channels will be celebrated,” stated Simone Marchetti, editor in chief of Vanity Fair Italia. “This exhibition is only the beginning, the prelude to a work that wants to be the frontier of a new evolution of experience, knowledge, information and entertainment.”

This is not the first time Vanity Fair Italia is experimenting with the new digital world.

In 2021, the magazine offered an NFT cover dedicated to the Italian pop-singer Elodie; in February 2022, with the debut of Vanity Player One, Vanity Fair created the first avatar of a newspaper starring in a fashion shoot, which also implemented interaction from readers, who could play with it on their smartphones.

“With MetaVanity, Vanity Fair has been able to fully embrace the constitutive values of the cultural revolution born of this moment,” said Etan Genini, chief executive officer and cofounder of Valuart. “It has allowed us to host some of the most extraordinary creative minds of today, leaving them free to operate in full respect of their history and become the life of a container that wants everything except contain, but to free experiences in the ether and give way to the visitor.” — ALICE MONORCHIO