CNN cuts off partnership with YouTuber, Casey Neistat
CNN aimed to expand its digital news outreach by incorporating multi-talented YouTuber Casey Neistat’s video business, Beme, which they bought for $25 million in 2016. The partnership was terminated last Thursday, with its final announcement on Neistat’s YouTube channel.
The cable news network parted ways with the Youtuber after ‘partnering to build and reshape the digital news for a new generation of CNN viewers’ as stated on global media brand website AdAge.
The context of the platform named ‘Beme’ as Casey Neistat states will provide users a platform that allows them to have ‘a new way to share news’ giving the viewer an opportunity to share content that is ‘unlimited and unbiased news.’
The build up left viewers in a cluster of confusion, as the context of the app worked based on sending content that could not be controlled. Viewers would let people record videos that can only be ‘activated while (they place their phone) at chest level.’ This concept was initially placed to motivate and inspire the young audience to experience events without living them through their smartphone screens.
The concept was introduced Neistat’s YouTube channel in 2015. Which left the viewers shocked and surprised to the idea of the application. Various viewers responded under the video, questioning the authenticity of the platform.
With Buzzfeed initially launching the news and Neistat uploading a video on his channel titled ‘Moving on from Beme’, CNN absorbed the platform as stated on the Hustle, as ‘Neistat couldn’t work his magic.’
Neistat explains in his interview with BuzzFeed News that ‘he struggled to figure out a “viable strategy.” Leaving both CNN and Neistat finding the partnership disadvantageous as no development besides 40 videos posted on the Beme YouTube channel were uploaded in the span of 13 months.
CNN’s digital business General Manager, Andrew Morse, states on Buzzfeed News that “You can’t be afraid to take chances if you want to stay on top of an industry that is changing every day.”
The development of the product, platform and content outbreach was progressing very slowly, but is a vital tool for the future of technology. Morse sees this as a reasonable attempt and it “was a chance worth taking — we built products and developed key talent that has made CNN stronger.”
Photo Credits:
YouTube Comments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mixsze6uJPg
Casey Neistat @SXSW 2017 – https://www.flickr.com/photos/nrkbeta/33229303282/
