Cheddar News, the business-focused startup, has been hollowed out. ‘It feels like the end,’ sources say

By Oliver Darcy, CNN

New York (CNN) — Not too long ago, on the 25th and 26th floors of the One State Street tower in lower Manhattan, a vibrant newsroom existed.

Each morning, hundreds of employees strolled into the offices of Cheddar News, breathing life into the prime real estate that housed studios and the infrastructure for a broadcast news network with big ambitions. As one former employee told me, the space was once “packed” and buzzing with activity as teams of staffers produced an entire lineup of programming.

The scene at One State Street looks much different today, with the offices void of people and the bustling energy that once made it an exciting upstart news outlet. Employees now “walk into a very desolate, empty office space,” I’m told. There is “literally no one there.”

That’s because there is, effectively, no one working at Cheddar News, the once spirited financial news-focused streaming television network. The Jon Steinberg-founded “CNBC for millennials,” which Altice USA acquired in 2019 for a staggering $200 million before offloading it for an undisclosed amount to Archetype last month, is now essentially a zombie channel.

The outlet technically exists, but its plans of grandeur are far behind it and the network is hanging on by a thin thread, according to people familiar with the company’s state of affairs. Currently, only one live news show, “Opening Bell” hosted by Kristen Scholer, remains in production. On Cheddar’s website, original reporting has ground to a halt. In its place, a few wire stories from the Associated Press are sporadically published.

In fact, just a handful of employees still remain working on the editorial product, the people who spoke with me said, estimating the group to be no more than a half-dozen staffers or so. And that group of staffers, I’m told, is likely to shrink even more in the days ahead as the remaining Cheddar staffers look to jump off what’s left of the sinking ship, which at this point appears to be mostly submerged and headed straight for the ocean floor.

“It feels like the end,” a person familiar with the matter candidly told me.

The once high-flying digital media outlet, which Steinberg started in 2016 when the ground was more fertile for online news ventures, entered the world with grand plans, eventually making its way onto cable lineups and gas station screens. Steinberg openly talked about taking on legacy cable news companies, with the desire to shake up the television industry, which he correctly noted at the time would decline as streaming gained momentum.

For Steinberg, the investment certainly had a handsome return. Cheddar was sold in 2019 for the lofty price of $200 million to Altice USA, which welcomed the well-regarded digital media veteran into its family as news chief. But soon after, Cheddar’s health faltered, the result of a confluence of factors, most prominently the Covid-19 pandemic that decimated the advertising business.

Cheddar was forced to go through a brutal round of layoffs in 2020, with Business Insider reporting at the time that the workforce was slashed by 30% or more. Between turnover and additional cuts in the following years, the outlet that once walked about with a confident step became emaciated, a shell of its former self.

By the time Archetype acquired Cheddar in December, only a couple dozen or so editorial staffers remained at the outlet, people familiar with the matter told me. Initially, those employees were filled with false hope that their jobs were safe. In fact, after the acquisition, Archetype asked all of the employees to sign a new contract.
That struck some employees as odd, but they complied, given Archetype was offering them the same position with the same pay.

“Everything they said implied that no big changes were going to be made right away,” recalled one former employee.

Soon after signing those agreements, however, Archetype sent furlough notices to many of the remaining employees. The notices were sent to the work email addresses of these employees, which were then shut off soon after, making it difficult for some staffers to retrieve the document, I’m told.

What Archetype’s vision for Cheddar is remains unclear. The company has not responded to multiple requests for comment sent over the last week. On Thursday, I attempted to directly contact senior leaders of Archetype’s management, including Kelly Facer, senior vice president and head of operations, and Stephanie Gildea, vice president of marketing. Neither responded.

Regardless, Cheddar’s future is not looking bright.

“There is certainly a death happening as we speak,” one of the people familiar with the outlet’s state of affairs told me. “I guess, you could try to bring it back from the dead. But right now, it’s certainly dying.”

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