After Zucker exit, CNN streams forward with a new service. What happens now?

The show must go on, even in streaming video.

Employees at CNN are keeping that adage in mind as they prepare to launch a new direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service, CNN+, later this month after one of the most tumultuous periods in the news organization’s history.

The hope is that CNN+ will serve as a gateway to a post-pay TV world, connecting the brand’s familiar red and white letters to a generation of viewers who are growing up without cable.

The company invested $120 million last year and hired 400 new employees, including notable on-air talent such as Chris Wallace, Kasie Hunt and former NPR star Audie Cornish. CNN+ will likely cost several hundred million to operate this year, according to two people familiar with the plans.

But internal drama and corporate machinations have put a cloud over the endeavor. On Feb. 2, Jeff Zucker, CNN’s high-profile leader for the last nine years, was forced to resign after parent company WarnerMedia learned that he failed to disclose a romantic relationship with his longtime