Inside the 5-year strategy to create a paid CNN

Poynter · Rick Edmonds · last updated June 11, 2025 – 8:06 AM

CNN’s bumpy and oh-so-slow progress in inventing a paid version of itself provokes a question: Is there a long game at work here?

“I’m glad you asked that,” Alex MacCallum, the senior executive in charge of the project, told me in a recent interview. The answer is yes. A five-year strategic plan came together soon after she rejoined the company in March 2024. It is now in the first stages of rollout.

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