CNN, FOX NEWS AND MSNBCS Calculation

In a moment when the news cycle is moving at a pierced pace, the top leaders of cable news are struggling with an unpleasant reality: the company’s future has never been more uncertain. As a Veteranchef claims, it’s not more likely even at the end of President Donald Trump’s period, CNN, MSNBC and, yes, even Fox News will have new ownership as the power structures that have defined media in the last four Decades break down.

MSNBC is already set to be spun from Comcast and NBCuniversal, where he joins the sister channel CNBC at “Spinco”, a cable -focused venture to be led by Mark Lazarus. And at Warner Bros. Discovery has a restructuring placed CNN in a “Global Linear Networks” division, apparently destined for future Dealmaking.

Even Fox News, with its relative economic and rating power, is not immune to speculation. Rupert Murdoch, who effectively controls Fox through an irrevocable family confidence, has tried to change this confidence to give his son (and Fox CEO) Lachlan Murdoch control. Should the legal effort fail, several Wall Street sources believe that Murdoch would participate in sales interviews or work with Lachlan to find out a way to buy his siblings and thus avoid a Succession-To public struggle for family empire.

“We believe there is an almost zero percentage chance that Rupert wants to leave Planet Earth with the future of the assets he spent his life building back in Limbo,” wrote Lightshed Partners’ Rich Greenfield in a note in December . “If Lachlan is unable to cement control through a buyout, we suspect Rupert would seem to sell FOX’s assets.”

It is not difficult to understand why the cable news is apparently on the edge of a precipitate, despite the fact that there is more news than ever with a president who is an avid viewer and has stacked his cabinet with TV veterans. As CNN CEO Mark Thompson told staff on January 23, there are “deep and irreversible shifts” in the way consumers get their news and the product must reflect it.

These shifts are even more sharp when you look at the troubled economy of cable TV. At present, everyone knows that the challenges that cord cut has performed with younger consumers who largely choose not to pay for TV and instead spend their dollars on streaming platforms. And while cable news ducts suck up a higher percentage of cable’s declining viewership (MSNBC viewing has risen 57 percent, and Fox News by 50 percent in the last decade despite 33 percent fewer wages -tv -Households, for example), the company remains challenges sharp.

The finance of cable news channels has traditionally been hidden, buried in larger departments of their parent companies. However, a recent defamation case against CNN brought these economies (or at least a partial version of them) outdoors.

According to the data revealed during the trial, the turnover of CNN dropped from $ 2.2 billion in 2021 to $ 1.8 billion in 2023, and while profits remain robust, they also slip quickly. CNN earned a net income of $ 600 million in 2021 and $ 400 million by 2023. A spokesman. “

The economy will be different at MSNBC and at Fox News (especially at Fox, which has much higher subscriber fees and significantly more viewers), but the total trend lines are still driven by the wealth in payment -TV and that pain feels everywhere. CNN’s decision to cut about 200 jobs in January is just the latest example.

All this is reflected in the “new normal” for talent agreements, according to several sources. Some, like Rachel Maddow, sign new contracts for less money or in other cases new offers without pay rise (ie CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire). Still others chose to give up their respective channels after being presented with new offers that offered sharply cut wages with Fox’s Neil Cavuto and CNN’s Chris Wallace among the high -profile examples.

“I think what the networks are looking at is” the way we had done things was wonderful to us, but it’s gone, and it’s never coming back, “says Ben Bogardus, associate professor and chairman of the journalism department at Quinnipiac University. “Younger generations especially get their news and information online. They enjoy the podcast model where they hear the unfiltered views of people in a longform interview, or they like the short clips of real people on social media. “

This reality is not lost on cable news, which is already beginning to turn accordingly. Thompson has prioritized vertical video on CNN, while a flurry of podcasts (many of them are hosted or produced by Maddow) found significant audiences.

And sources at several stores say there is an interest in leaving agreements with podcasters and other digital native hosts, either in the form of direct acquisitions or content partnerships. Kara Swisher and Scott Galloways Pivot For example, Podcast has held conversations with several media companies, including CNN.

In fact, the podcast revolution already finds its way to the older TV product in aesthetic form, if not function.

After Cavuto left Fox, the channel gave its timeslot to Will Cain, who also hosts a podcast for the company. His afternoon show contains “a signature podcast style” per. Fox, with a microphone on the desk in front of him, and a format known to anyone watching talk shows on platforms like YouTube or Spotify.

It is in some ways a back-to-future moment for cable, where lower cost radio-simulcasts used to fill otherwise unwanted hours. Before Morning JoeFor example, MSNBC Simulcasted Don Imus’ radio show. Now the format is leaking into far more lucrative time spaces.

And everywhere, news leaders are encrypted to find out how news fits into the streaming future that takes shape over the rest of the media, submerses entertainment and now sports.

Thompson told employees that his channel’s goal is “to change CNN’s gravity against platforms and products where the audience is changing.” What it looks like remains somewhat opaque, though Thompson said it will include a new CNN streaming service and lifestyle-focused subscription offerings to supplement his digital news report. He added that WBD is investing $ 70 million in the effort.

Fox, meanwhile, is in many ways ahead of the game, after launching his Fox Nation -Streaming Service in 2018. Still, this service, which is aimed at Super Fans, still has only two million subscribers a year ago and its content line is heavy on Entertainment price.

Now it has decided to take the biggest jump of them all. On February 4, Fox said it would launch a streaming service by the end of 2025, one that would include sports and, yes, Fox News Programming. Lachlan Murdoch said his company is still obliged to the payment -tv -bottom but added that “we want to reach consumers, no matter where they are and there is a large population, of course, now outside the traditional cable bundle. ”

While managers in the company have long maintained that they could “turn a switch” and start streaming Fox News’ full lineup, the company now has to fight with the same questions facing ESPN, which will make its full programming relief Available via streaming later this year: How do you take one of the most lucrative wholesale products over time and prices it for retail consumers without destroying the company? When each payment TV consumer pays for each channel, a company like ESPN or Fox News can make billions annually. However, if you have a product that only appeals to fans of the brand, pricing and retention strategy will be a much bigger problem to solve.

And at MSNBC, Spinoff could end up being a saving grace. Until now, MSNBC’s streaming strategy has centered on Peacock, NBCuniversal’s streaming service. But released from this corporate structure, MSNBC can find out its own way forward in streaming, whether it is a license agreement or a direct to consumer offering as his sister channel CNBC has evolved into its (smaller, more nich) audience. However, the clock is ticking.

“I think they say,” yes, we make money now, but in 10 years we will not make more money than we are now, “says Bogardus. “So how can we get in front of the game? How can we make sure that for the next 10 years we do not lose 100 percent of our audience as more and more American life is moving to social platforms and online and user -generated content. ”

And despite agita and anxiety that permeates news rooms, there are still pockets with optimism.

Since the election, Fox News has collected approx. 70 percent of the cable news audience and drawn numbers more comparable to TV networks. It is an astonishing business in an era of wiring cutting. Fox “burned out of the cable news competition”, CFO Steve Tomsic asked at an UBS conference 9 December.

These numbers give it a runway to find out a digital path forward that MSNBC and CNN may not have, and Fox’s strong balance is also suitable for being a buyer of digital programs or platforms where Murdoch tells Wall Street analysts in November last year that Fox will engage in “Thoughtful M&A.”

Still, both leaders and talent on the other channels are hopeful that there is still a path not only for their brands to survive or even thrive. If they can find out the product that appeals to an audience, the company can follow, they claim.

“If you look at Morning JoeIf you look at CNBC because we have audiences of influence, people come to us, advertising comes to us, under -fees come to us, ”msnbc Morning Joe The host Joe Scarborough says. “That should be the goal of people who want to remain relevant. Serious news sells you have to get the right audience. “

The challenge will be to find out where these influence groups are in a world where pay TV is a shadow of its former self and who exactly feeds the bill.

This story first appeared in the February 5th edition of the Hollywood Reporter -magazine. To receive the magazine, Click here to subscribe.