Posted on 07/04/2023 12:24:12 PM PDT by lasereye
Another billionaire has added a media company to his wishlist: John Catsimatidis, the chairman and CEO of grocery chains Gristedes Foods and D'Agostino Supermarkets. He’s telling news outlets he’d be willing to purchase CNN from Warner Bros. Discovery.
“I’d go run the place tomorrow morning, and all I’d want is $1 per year and a piece of the upside,” the grocery mogul, told the New York Post.
Catsimatidis’ comments follow a difficult year for the media outlet, which has faced declining viewership and turnover in the C-suite. Chief executive Chris Licht was let go after a brief one-year stint as head of the company and a disastrous town hall with Donald Trump that the network’s most lauded reporters roundly criticized. David Zaslav, the chief executive of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery and cited as Licht’s strongest backer, is now looking for a replacement to turn the struggling company around.
And given the opportunity, Catsimatidis says he could run CNN better.
In an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, the grocery CEO said he believed he could quadruple viewership rapidly.
“CNN only has, what, 400,000 viewers every night,” he said. “I told them … I’ll have it up to 2 million in one year.”
Catsimatidis also indicated that he’d be willing to consider joint ventures to finance the deal and that he could “double the profits” relatively quickly if given control.
His strategy would include making the content more bipartisan in an effort to broaden viewership — though his lack of televised media experience and highly partisan views raise inevitable doubts.
Born in Greece and raised in New York, Catsimatidis is an entrepreneur, politician and radio show host. Besides grocery stores, his holdings include a real estate firm, an aviation company, an oil refinery and the Hellenic Times newspaper.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
He supported Donald Trump during the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns (reportedly to the tune of more than $600,000) but has recently said that he trusts the courts to legitimately adjudicate recent charges against the former president.
I know exactly how he would get it up to 2 million...”fair and balanced”. Roger Ailes had it right, the execrable Murcocks ruined it.
…strategy would include making the content more bipartisan in an effort to broaden viewership — though his lack of televised media experience and highly partisan views raise inevitable doubts.
The lack of self-awareness of these media hacks is just mind blowing. As to the former, I should think there’s paid help that can ring him up to speed. As to the latter, the MSM, on the basis of no evidence at all, reported day after day for years that the President of the Inited States was a foreign agent, was “just like Hitler,” etc etc
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Oh well,
CNN started out as a billboard company.....
You never know...
He has no idea what he would be getting himself into. Given his desire to do this, he really doesn’t understand.
John knows that's not part of the plan, right?
I would most definitely watch a “fair and balanced” CNN.... Fox ain’t there no more...
I used to be 24/7 Fox... Now I am more like 12/365... They have lost the MoJo...
How many CIA/FBI/NSA contracts would he have to break?
It's the least of his holdings.
Where’s his refinery?
If CNN is loosing moneym $1 is too much a payment!
Im not saying he can’t make it better.
I just don’t think he knows what he would be getting into.
Maybe he should buy some followers then. That’s what everybody else does.
I turned off Fox entirely after they let Tucker go.
John of All Trades - An Interview with John Catsimatidis
Because he knows the power of information warfare and that is all cnn is. It is a tool to execute information warfare.
Cats is a definitely old school New Yorker. He runs 77 WABC, conservative talk during the week with throwback music on weekends, Cousin Brucie four hours on Saturday. Joe Piscopo has Saturday Sinatra. Cats is a guy who can make CNN work like a real news station.
Is he the guy that fired Bob Grant?
Does CNN still dominate airports? I was forced to listen to CNN at many airports. I can imagine the anger of liberals forced to listen to a fair and balanced (better yet, conservative) news service when waiting for their plane.
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