Barry Diller Says He Would Buy CNN ‘Tonight’ If Given the Chance: ‘So Ripe’ for ‘Innovation’

Veteran media executive Barry Diller says he would buy CNN “tonight” if given the chance and called the network “ripe” for “innovation” as he argued those currently in charge had neglected their “on-air product.”

The IAC chairman made the remarks Tuesday during an appearance at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival, where he said CNN had been left vulnerable after years of stagnation.

“You have made no secret recently that you would love to own CNN in a personal capacity, not through IAC. I’m curious, what would –” journalist Cara Lombardo began.

“I never said a personal capacity, I probably would have done it through IAC,” the former Fox and Paramount exec cut in.

“Is this still an option if it comes available in the future?” the host pressed.

“Absolutely,” he replied. “I would do it tonight and tomorrow night before they ruin it any further. Hopefully before it’s extinct, which I mean it’s not going to be, but I think, I mean, it is so ripe for care. It is so ripe for a kind of innovation that I don’t think it’s seen in almost 10 years.”

He continued: “The thing is and you know, a lot of the people who work at CNN I have a lot of respect for, I just don’t think they’ve been served well because no one has made an investment really.”

“They’ve made investments to some degree in trying to turn it into a digital property, maybe they’ll succeed with that, but they haven’t done anything with their on-air product. They haven’t really, I believe, at least seems to me, invested in it,” he added. “I would very much invest in it.”

CNN’s future has become a growing point of speculation following the proposed $81 billion merger between parent company Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Skydance, led by David Ellison.

The media billionaire also revealed he had looked “very deeply” at a possible acquisition of Vox Media, the company behind New York magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network, after Lombardo cited reports that James Murdoch is in talks to buy parts of the company.

Asked whether he would consider buying The Washington Post, Diller replied simply: “No.”

“Unless they have subscription revenue that goes beyond their metropolitan market, like both The Journal and the [New York] Times have, they’re doomed,” he said.

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