The YouTube star Casey Neistat is leaving CNN a little over a year after the company bought his app, Beme, for about $25 million.

Neistat was supposed to develop a new millennial-focused outlet for CNN through the Beme app.

CNN said that it would try to find new jobs for Beme employees within the company but that some would be laid off.



CNN is losing the YouTube star Casey Neistat and shutting down Beme, his app that the news network acquired for about $25 million in 2016, BuzzFeed News reported Thursday.

Neistat was brought to CNN to turn Beme into a new outlet for digital storytelling. CNN had hoped to leverage Neistat's popularity on YouTube to reach a new generation of viewers. But Neistat told BuzzFeed he didn't think CNN was a good fit.

He also addressed his departure from CNN in a YouTube video on Thursday.

Neistat appeared on the cover of The Hollywood reporter last year. In the cover story, CNN's president, Jeff Zucker, said he became interested in Neistat after learning about him from his teenage son.

BuzzFeed reports that CNN plans to find new jobs within the company for the 22 employees who worked with Neistat on Beme but that some will be laid off.