CNN announces plan to charge $3.99 a month to access ‘unlimited’ articles, features

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CNN has announced it will start charging $3.99 a month to access certain features of its website.

The plan, which launched Oct. 1, 2024, will give users “unlimited” access to the site’s articles as well as access to its “FlashDocs” streaming library, an interactive electoral vote map feature and subscriber-only articles. 

Subscribers will also see “fewer” ads throughout the site.

It’s important to note that CNN.com’s homepage will still remain free and not require a subscription to skim headlines. The network will also continue to make text-based breaking news coverage available to all users without limits. 

Users will also still be able to watch as many standalone videos as they’d like — which are often supported by advertising.

In the FAQs about the new plans, CNN mentions that non-paid registered users will have access to a “limited number of free articles.”

It did not mention a specific threshold that free users will have or if non-registered users might have a similar experience but with a different limit.

It was also not immediately clear what “subscriber-only” articles might include. CNN.com’s “Road to 270” map feature remains visible to everyone, but interacting with it triggers an overlay prompting users to subscribe.

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CNN specifically mentions that the $3.99 a month plan does not include access to the network’s live linear feed or CNN Max. 

Most pages on CNN.com began sporting a “subscribe” button Oct. 1. 

An initial review of the CNN iOS app did not show a similar button being prominently added, though users can log in to their CNN.com accounts, as they have been able to do previously, and presumably could log into their paid accounts.

It’s not clear if CNN will sell subscriptions via the Apple ecosystem. Selling such plans directly inside an iOS or iPadOS app would presumably require splitting a portion of subscription fees with Apple, something many brands have been reluctant to do.

CNN is, however, permitted to sell subscriptions when users access CNN.com via a web browser instead of a native app and is doing so.

CNN’s $3.99 a month plan comes out to less than 15 cents a day, and the network is offering pre-paid yearly plans for $29.99, which reduces the cost to about 8 cents a day. 

It’s not clear how many users CNN thinks might sign up for this offering. Signing up a million yearly users would generate just under $4 million in revenue. CNN’s revenue peaked in 2023 at around $2 billion, so $4 million in revenue is around 0.2% of that total, so the network would need to convince a significant number of users to pay in order to make a substantial contribution to total figures.

That said, CNN’s overall revenue is declining as it sees significant dips in subscribers to pay TV packages that, in turn, fund much of its balance sheet. Advertising revenue is also declining as the economy shifts and digital platforms soak up more of these dollars.

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