Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav might have chosen from a litany of causes to fireplace Chris Licht as CNN’s chief.

Licht, who left the community Wednesday after simply over a 12 months within the position, struggled with management type, lifting morale, programming selections, methods to cowl former President Donald Trump and, in the end, hubris.

However Licht’s total tenure at CNN might have turned out otherwise had he persuaded Zaslav to maintain CNN+.

Which will sound absurd. Hardly anybody watched CNN+ throughout its first two weeks of existence final 12 months. Zaslav and several other different Discovery executives, together with present Warner Bros. Discovery head of streaming JB Perrette and now-CNN Chief Working Officer David Leavy, have been skeptical of spending lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} on area of interest or half-baked content material concepts like “Jake Tapper’s E book Membership” and “Parental Steerage with Anderson Cooper.” Leavy is now a part of the chief workforce that may assist Zaslav discover a new CEO.

Zaslav thought CNN+ was a waste of assets for a corporation saddled with $50 billion of debt that wanted to spice up free money circulate and generate $3 billion in merger-related synergies. However earlier than he made any selections, he wished to listen to Licht’s ideas.

Licht was supposed to start his job Could 2, 2022, however he began a number of weeks early to weigh in on CNN+. In a number of digital conferences, he met with CNN+ head Andrew Morse, CNN+ basic supervisor Alex MacCallum and CNN Chief Tech Officer Robyn Peterson, in keeping with folks conversant in the matter who declined to be recognized because of the non-public nature of the talks. Perrette and Discovery streaming CFO Neil Chugani (who would develop into CNN’s CFO) have been additionally there.

Licht expressed his skepticism with the product’s programming, in keeping with folks within the assembly. The dialogue centered across the viability of providing a product named after CNN with out truly that includes a dwell feed of the community’s cable programming. Perrette advised the CNN+ management to pause all advertising and marketing spending and to not launch on Roku.

Whereas the CNN+ workforce got here away from the conferences assuming the streaming service would possible be killed, they despatched financials to Discovery’s management. They budgeted to spend $440 million in 2022 and $550 million in 2023, the folks mentioned. The proposal referred to as for CNN+ to show a revenue by 2025 and break even on the cumulative funding by 2028.

Lower than three weeks later, CNN+ was useless. A Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson declined to touch upon the small print of the conferences.

Had Licht persuaded the Discovery executives to maintain CNN+, it is attainable his tenure at CNN would have developed otherwise.

Licht’s background is present producing. He launched “Morning Joe” on MSNBC and jumpstarted “Late Evening with Stephen Colbert” on CBS. CNN+ would have given him a canvas to create exhibits from scratch. It additionally would have given him a development story to pitch to the press and buyers. If further spending wasn’t within the playing cards, he might have slashed the price range however saved the bones of the subscription product alive, iterating on artistic concepts till he landed on one thing that labored. CNN+ launched at $4.99 per thirty days, although pricing might have been adjusted.

Former CNN head Jeff Zucker, who left the community after disclosing a office relationship simply months earlier than the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger, had aspirations about turning CNN+ right into a New York Occasions-like subscription product. That may have taken years, however it additionally might need given staff and administration a north star. Consideration on CNN+ might have been a ready-made distraction from falling linear TV rankings, which Licht might have dismissed as comparatively unimportant in contrast with constructing the corporate’s future.

With out CNN+, Licht was left with a foundering cable TV community and no coherent digital technique. That is anathema to a contemporary media firm.

In his 12 months on the job, Licht laid off lots of of staff and largely shifted round present CNN anchors and reporters to construct a brand new morning present and prime-time programming. His experiment to maneuver prime-time anchor Don Lemon to the morning failed. CNN fired Lemon in April. Licht tried to maneuver Tapper, a day anchor, to prime time, however the early rankings weren’t good and Tapper wished to maintain his time slot, so Licht scrapped his plans.

In Licht’s protection, his lack of future technique echoed Zaslav’s restricted imaginative and prescient.

“When [Zaslav] referred to as and supplied me the job, he advised me what he was on the lookout for out of CNN,” Licht advised CNBC final 12 months. “And I mentioned, ‘That is precisely the type of community I wish to see.’ There is not any daylight between his imaginative and prescient for this community and my imaginative and prescient for this community. The one motive why I took this job is as a result of it was him in cost. I believed, I can ship this for him.”

Zaslav advised Licht he wished to make CNN much less of an advocacy community and extra of a straight information community. Warner Bros. Discovery board member John Malone advised CNBC in 2021 he’d “prefer to see CNN evolve again to the type of journalism that it began with, and truly have journalists, which might be distinctive and refreshing.”

However CNN journalists argued this was a straw man. They claimed they weren’t advocating for something apart from reality. A number of took offense to Malone’s feedback as a slight to their journalistic abilities.

CNN can change the tone of its programming round Trump, who’s the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. It could possibly tone down hyperbole and rhetoric round his lies and exaggerations, relying on the state of affairs.

Nonetheless, that is not a enterprise technique. CNN+ might have been doomed to be nothing greater than a fledgling streaming service. However it represented hope for a way a model might transition towards the long run. A profitable chief of CNN might want to determine a method to enhance rankings with compelling programming whereas additionally fostering new digital companies that usher in income and youthful audiences.

It is attainable CNN+ would have by no means taken off, and Licht would have spent the previous 12 months doubling down on a flawed idea that his Discovery bosses by no means appreciated — which in all probability would have led to his firing anyway. Traders thumbed their nostril at elevated spending on streaming companies final 12 months, so any plan round CNN+ wanted to emphasise its long-term enchantment.

The issue was with out CNN+, Licht held a weak hand. CNN’s revenue fell in 2022 to about $750 million (together with $200 million in CNN+ losses) from $1.25 billion the earlier 12 months on a weak promoting market and declining cable subscription charges, in keeping with The New York Occasions. Promoting income at CNN dropped practically 40% underneath Licht, The Day by day Beast reported, citing MediaRadar information.

The 2024 election and a extra sturdy political advert market ought to assist CNN’s financials enhance subsequent 12 months, however “look forward to 2024” is not a robust message — and it does not present an answer for 2025 and past.

If Zaslav desires to discover a CEO that may win the hearts and minds of staff and enhance the highest and backside strains, he’ll want to seek out somebody with a extra holistic technique than simply programming for a 55-and-older cable TV viewers.

In that manner, Licht was doomed from the beginning.

Correction: Robyn Peterson was chief tech officer of CNN. An earlier model misstated his title. Neil Chugani was CFO of Discovery streaming. An earlier model misspelled his identify.

WATCH: Chris Licht’s tumultuous tenure