• Cheddar News was founded with the vision of taking on business news big dogs like CNBC.
• But the vision has been beset by staff defections, complaints of low morale, and editorial red flags.
• Some on-air talent felt “pressure” to act like social-media influencers, Insider’s reporting showed.

Under management at telecom company Altice USA, media startup Cheddar News was transformed into a gauntlet of extreme “pressure” where on-air talent felt they had to think and act like social-media influencers, lest their compensation be affected, multiple sources told Insider in an exclusive investigation.

Cheddar News, founded in 2016 by BuzzFeed and MailOnline alum Jon Steinberg, was originally conceived as a vehicle for millennials and younger viewers to get their daily download of business news. 

The goal was to give established giants like CNBC and Bloomberg a run for their money by investing in a digital-first, online streaming strategy. But under Altice, the digital-first strategy has become a social-media-first strategy, according to interviews conducted by Insider in December and January with 16 current and former Cheddar News staffers. (Most employees who spoke to Insider requested anonymity since they were not authorized to speak with reporters.)

It’s rubbing some employees the wrong way.

Cheddar has bled staffers since the start of 2022 as a result of the turmoil, thinning its ranks of producers and anchors, fomenting burnout and unrest among those who have remained, and creating schisms between staff and management. Current and former employees also vented about working in a newsroom they said was plagued by “sloppy” editorial standards and accusations of “plagiarism” in daily news scripts.

In mid-2022, Cheddar management announced a strategy shift to embrace social-media-focused content across its shows and programming blocks, which alarmed some insiders who felt the site was abandoning its business news roots, sources said.

As management dialed up pressure last year on broadcast journalists to prioritize social media, some on-air personalities felt their compensation could be impacted by the size of their followings — and a person with direct knowledge of the consequences said some hosts even spent their own money on third-party social-media agencies they found online to boost their followings.

Insider also obtained a leaked audio recording of an all-hands meeting at Cheddar headquarters in January, where top brass said they recognized that a staffing crunch had depleted remaining producers’ bandwidth and energy, but offered no clear solutions to right the ship.

As of last week, Insider learned three more staffers are out — one handed in his two-week notice, and two others completed their last days at the network. “It’s a very weird time right now. It’s like we’re all on the deck of the Titanic. We’re waiting for the next shoe to drop. We’re waiting for the ship to sink,” a current producer told Insider last week.

An Altice spokesperson said in an emailed statement earlier this month that there were “inaccuracies” in Insider’s reporting, but did not provide specifics. “We stand by our commitment to providing viewers with the very best in ‘Need2Know’ headlines covering what’s next in business, technology, culture, innovation, and more,” the statement read.