David Zaslav Lays Out His Vision for Warner Bros. Discovery

In an hourlong interview Thursday with Oprah Winfrey at a theater on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Calif., that was streamed to employees around the globe, Mr. Zaslav laid out his vision for the company, which he started leading days ago after AT&T Inc. spun off its WarnerMedia unit and Discovery merged with it, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The merger created a media giant whose properties include the Warner Bros. movie studio and the cable channels HBO, CNN, TNT, Food Network and HGTV.

Mr. Zaslav told Winfrey his ambition is to have the newly formed company’s content available on a single service—a lesson that Discovery previously learned when it launched a series of niche services that were eventually combined.

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. Chief Executive David Zaslav told employees that he wants CNN to focus on maximizing its impact, not profitability, and set itself apart from a cable-news industry that he said is dominated by “advocacy networks.”

David Zaslav

“We don’t want to go to eight places. We want to go to one place, and we want to see everything we want to see,” Mr. Zaslav said consumers told Discovery at the time, according to a person who attended the meeting. “When we put it all together, we were much more successful.”

Warner Bros. Discovery has already said it plans to combine its two most prominent streaming services—HBO Max and Discovery+. Its newest stand-alone service, CNN+, is off to a less-than-stellar start since it launched last month, and the company’s senior leaders aren’t fully on board with the strategy behind CNN+, people familiar with their thinking said.

During the town hall, Mr. Zaslav didn’t talk specifics about CNN+.

The town hall capped off a whirlwind week of meetings for Mr. Zaslav, who has to start integrating the disparate entities within Warner Bros. Discovery, which is saddled with $55 billion in debt as a result of the deal. Mr. Zaslav has said he anticipates $3 billion in cost savings.

During the town hall, Zaslav warned that staff reductions were likely as he removes layers of management and combines operators.