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‘All I’d want is $1 per year': An NYC grocery billionaire just said he wants to buy CNN — offers to run the embattled network for pennies. Who is this mogul and why is he interested?
Yahoo Finance ^ | July 4, 2023 | Vishesh Raisinghani

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: catsimidis; cnn; johncatsimatidis; talkradio; wabc
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As for his political leanings, Catsimatidis was a registered Democrat who donated to the Bill Clinton campaign until 2009. He later decided to run for mayor as a Republican and has been a prominent voice on the conservative aisle ever since.

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.

1 posted on 07/04/2023 12:24:12 PM PDT by lasereye
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To: lasereye

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.


2 posted on 07/04/2023 12:28:18 PM PDT by bigbob (Q)
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To: lasereye

…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


3 posted on 07/04/2023 12:28:47 PM PDT by j.havenfarm (22 years on Free Republic, 12/10/22! more then 6500 replies and still not shutting up!)
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To: lasereye

https://hellenicnews.com/

14K
Fans

Instagram
3,894
Followers

Twitter
2,609
Followers

YouTube
133
Subscribers


4 posted on 07/04/2023 12:29:50 PM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: fishtank

Oh well,

CNN started out as a billboard company.....

You never know...


5 posted on 07/04/2023 12:30:41 PM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: lasereye

He has no idea what he would be getting himself into. Given his desire to do this, he really doesn’t understand.


6 posted on 07/04/2023 12:32:24 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: lasereye
His strategy would include making the content more bipartisan...

John knows that's not part of the plan, right?

7 posted on 07/04/2023 12:35:43 PM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: lasereye

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...


8 posted on 07/04/2023 12:41:42 PM PDT by CenTex (November 6, 2012 & August 31, 2021... Days that will live in infamy!!! )
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To: lasereye

How many CIA/FBI/NSA contracts would he have to break?


9 posted on 07/04/2023 12:44:53 PM PDT by aimhigh (1 John 3:23 "And THIS is His commandment . . . . ")
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To: fishtank
Why your interest in Hellenic News?

It's the least of his holdings.

10 posted on 07/04/2023 12:47:52 PM PDT by FreeReign
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To: FreeReign

Where’s his refinery?


11 posted on 07/04/2023 12:51:01 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Secret Agent Man

If CNN is loosing moneym $1 is too much a payment!


12 posted on 07/04/2023 12:54:07 PM PDT by AZJeep
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To: AZJeep

Im not saying he can’t make it better.

I just don’t think he knows what he would be getting into.


13 posted on 07/04/2023 12:55:42 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: fishtank

Maybe he should buy some followers then. That’s what everybody else does.


14 posted on 07/04/2023 12:56:07 PM PDT by Prince of Space (Trump 2024!)
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To: CenTex

I turned off Fox entirely after they let Tucker go.


15 posted on 07/04/2023 12:57:07 PM PDT by Prince of Space (Trump 2024!)
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To: Paladin2
Where’s his refinery?

John of All Trades - An Interview with John Catsimatidis


16 posted on 07/04/2023 12:58:52 PM PDT by FreeReign
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To: lasereye

Because he knows the power of information warfare and that is all cnn is. It is a tool to execute information warfare.


17 posted on 07/04/2023 12:59:47 PM PDT by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
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To: lasereye

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.


18 posted on 07/04/2023 1:28:29 PM PDT by xkaydet65
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To: xkaydet65

Is he the guy that fired Bob Grant?


19 posted on 07/04/2023 1:39:29 PM PDT by bankwalker (Repeal the 19th ...)
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To: lasereye

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.


20 posted on 07/04/2023 1:45:33 PM PDT by ChessExpert (Required for informed consent: "We have a new, experimental vaccine.")
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