The Peter Thiel Network.

CNN re-imagined.

A while back, I wrote a piece about the future of CNN. It seemed to me then, as it does now, that chances were (and are) good that Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) would soon begin the process of selling CNN to the highest bidder.

The reasons were straightforward: (1) news is not a “core business” for WBD, (2) WBD is carrying massive debt (~$50 billion) that needs to be paid down if (3) WBD’s share price is ever going to regain the ~60 percent of the value it’s lost since it started trading as WBD.

A sale of CNN would generate potential buyers and a reasonably handsome price, especially with the approaching spike in advertising revenue from the 2024 presidential campaign. More to the point, a sale would ease Wall Street “concerns” about WBD’s debt load and thus its future prospects. The stock would go up. Institutional investors would breathe easier. A sale would change the WBD “narrative” overnight.

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Who would buy it?

Back in the day, Rupert Murdoch would be circling, in the same way that he’s been circling The New York Times for decades. Those days are over. Lachlan Murdoch is in charge at Fox and he’s in the process of transforming Fox into a sports/e-sports/gambling combine, that uses the cash generated by Fox News to underwrite the “future” company’s growth.