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CNN puts the kibosh on Beme as Casey Neistat leaves the company
August 13, 2025
In late 2016,CNNtook a chance on popular YouTube video creator Casey Neistat and purchased Beme, a video-sharing app Neistat co-created with Matt Hackett. It wasreleased to Android in May 2016, but very few people actually used it. That didn’t stopCNNfrom acquiring Beme for awhopping $25 million in November 2016. Following the purchase, the Beme app itself wasremoved from the Google Play Storeat the end of January 2017.
Neistat, Hackett, and the rest of the Beme team were supposed to create some kind of new video-based news organization under the CNN banner. However, it was never quite clear just what they were going to do, and now it appears thatCNNhas had enough of this experiment.Buzzfeedwas the firstto report that the Beme team is breaking up. Neistat and Hackett are leaving the company, while most of the 22-person Beme team will be rehired by CNN in other roles.
In hisown post on Medium, Hackett says the Beme team made two products,including Panels, an app for Android and iOS that allowed users to upload video opinions about news topics. The other product, which was never released, was called Wire, which Hackett said would have been a “machine-learning-powered platform for journalists to cover live news in a world where your smartphone is always closer than your TV remote.” Features from both of these apps will now be added to the mainCNNmobile app. The Beme team alsolaunched its own YouTube channel, but it only posted about 40 videos over the span of six months. Hackett says that channel will continue underCNN’sdigital studios.
All in all, it seems like the Beme team struggled to make the kind of internet-based news product that would be different than the norm. It also sounds likeCNNwanted to see if Neistat’s experience in making popular YouTube videos could translate into a new and younger audience for its news group. All in all, this experience shows that throwing a lot of money at an Internet video creator to make a new product is no guarantee of success.
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