CNN boss to roll out digital subscriptions as network struggles: ‘Industry going through a revolution’

CNN boss Mark Thompson said he plans to roll out a slew of long-awaited digital subscription services to offset viewership declines at the struggling cable news outlet — but he continued to be vague on details.

The digital strategy, which has been in the making since Thompson joined CNN as CEO 18 months ago, is expected to begin materializing with one streaming product debuting this year, and another in 2026, Thompson told The Financial Times Tuesday.

“I don’t think this stuff is easy,” Thompson said of transforming CNN’s business to include robust digital revenue. “Our industry is going through a revolution. The landscape is continuing to go through the stresses and strains of an enormous disruption of audiences and of the media generally.”

Thompson said he hopes to build a digital subscription business that will generage more than $1 billion in yearly revenue by 2030.

The network, which is home to Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper and Erin Burnett, made $1.7 billion in operating revenue last year, S&P Global Market Intelligence estimated.

CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has given Thompson more than $70 million to execute his turnaround, the outlet said.

The irony isn’t lost on CNN employees who watches as Warner Bros. Discovery killed off subscription streaming service CNN+ when it merged with Discovery in 2022 — only to re-implement a digital strategy under Thompson less than two years later.

Thompson, who was previously CEO of The New York Times where he helped over see a digital transformation, has been vague about his plans for CNN, which has slipped significantly in the ratings in recent years and has slashed 200 jobs earlier this year as a result.

CNN declined to comment further.

CNN’s total viewers in the US shriveled by roughly 8% in the first three months of the year despite a steady stream of news generated by Trump’s return to the White House.

Left-leaning rival MSNBC fell a whopping 27% for the period as the right-leaning Fox jumped a staggering 48%, Nielsen said.

The exec described the first product to launch this year as a “non-news digital product, though it might be heavy in information.”

Whatever that is, it will launch in the US before it is rolled out to customers around the world.

The service is expected to have more features and lifestyle content, the report said, noting that some of Thompson’s earlier attempts to introduce a paywall for some of CNN’s newsier content were still in the “early days” stage.

Insiders have speculated that Thompson will create a range of services for subscribers outside core news in lifestyle and entertainment — similar to what he did at The Times when he developed a subscription business based on cooking and games, among other things.

Thompson has been rather clear-eyed about the fortunes of CNN and cable TV, which continues to shrink as customers opt for streaming, telling staffers in 2023 that the network is “nowhere near ready for the future.”

Making matters worse for Thompson is the adversarial stance Trump has taken against CNN over what he viewed as biased coverage. Ealier this year, Thompson told CNN staffers to focus on Trump’s second term and to be “open-minded” about the next four years and report objectively, instead of returning to the network’s historically hostile relationship with the president.

Thompson echoed that sentiment, telling The Financial Times that CNN’s job is to “report on the government of the day in whichever country it is” in an “accurate,” “fair-minded” way that “doesn’t labor under its own prejudices of biases and doesn’t shy away from holding power to account.”

The exec added: “We shouldn’t slip into the idea that part of our job is to oppose political forces as such. Our job is to over the political contest, rather than to head into the ring and start throwing punches ourselves.”