CNN cuts 6% of jobs in strategy pivot to focus on streaming

Warner Bros Discovery’s CNN division let go 6% of its workforce, or about 200 employees, Thursday as the cable news network focuses on streaming and digital audiences amid declining ratings.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Thompson told staff that Warner Bros will invest $70 million to help support CNN’s pivot, and that money will be used in part to hire about 100 new employees in the first half of this year focused on the company’s” new digital path,” including a new streaming service for the classic CNN TV.

“The changes we’re announcing today are part of an ongoing response by this great news organisation to profound and irreversible shifts in the way audiences in America and around the world consume news,” Thompson said in a memo to staff reviewed by Bloomberg. “Our objective is a simple one: to shift CNN’s gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting.”

Like other TV news outlets, CNN has faced declining ratings as more consumers move from cable TV to streaming and obtain their news from other sources, such as influencers. CNN and MSNBC have also seen drops in viewership following President Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, while Fox News’ audience has climbed.

As cable-TV suffers a widespread decline in viewers, CNN has been building a digital subscription product to provide news tailored to consumers’ new viewing habits. In October, CNN.com introduced an online paywall that requires readers to pay $4 a month once they run out of free articles and limits some stories only to subscribers. Thompson said in the memo that there are plans to “to develop a new way for digital subscribers at home and abroad to stream news programming from us on any device they choose. ” The network is also moving further into video and has plans to launch a “lifestyle-oriented product” later this year.

CNN said it plans to rearrange its television lineup, including its weekday show hosts. In legal proceedings earlier this month in which the company was found liable for defamation and ordered to pay $5 million in damages, it was revealed that the network had seen its net income fall by one-third since 2021 to $400 million in 2023.

Warner Bros. has had its own share of struggles. The company wrote down the value of its traditional TV networks by $9.1 billion last year and eliminated more than 2,000 positions, including 100 at CNN. The media giant also got outbid for rights to air National Basketball Association games, despite a decades-long partnership between the league and Warner Bros.’s TNT network.

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