New government agency to attract foreign investment and Taylor Swift dance class murderer sentenced. Video / NZ Herald, Getty Images, AFP
CNN is poised to lay off hundreds of staff members this week as it pushes to bolster its digital audience, according to reports.
The wave of redundancies, expected to be announced on Thursday, is understood to be aimed at lowering production costs and shifting the network’s focus to creating digitalsubscription products.
Media organisations including CNN, which employs about 3500 staff, have struggled to grow audiences and revenue amid the decline in cable news viewers, and have sought to diversify their offering.
Some CNN programmes that are made in New York or Washington DC may also be relocated to Atlanta to save on costs, a source told CNBC.
The cuts are not expected to impact the broadcaster’s most prominent names.
CNN chief executive Mark Thompson said earlier this month the network had been boosted by an investment of “more than $70 million (NZ$124.8 million)” from its parent company Warner Bros. Discovery for its digital employees.
Mark Thompson - chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide. Photo / Getty Images
Some of that cash will be spent hiring staff in areas such as data scientists and product development.
The move comes months after CNN launched a digital paywall to charge some users $3.99 per month.
It has been a bruising start to the year for the network which earlier this month was found liable for defaming a US Navy veteran, who was awarded $5m in damages by a Florida jury.
The broadcaster subsequently reached a settlement with Zachary Young for an undisclosed sum, avoiding a second phase of the trial that would have seen it ordered to pay punitive damages.
Young had blamed CNN for destroying his business through a 2021 story on Jake Tapper’s broadcast about a “black market” of extracting desperate Afghans following the Taliban takeover.
In a statement CNN said: “We’re proud of our journalists and are 100% committed to strong, fearless and fair-minded reporting at CNN, though we will of course take what useful lessons we can from this case.”
Until last year, the network had not made significant redundancies since 2022.
But six months ago CNN axed 100 jobs from “across the company” as it unveiled its digital strategy.
Announcing the cuts at the time, Thompson promoted a digital plan he said would help it “regain a leadership position in the news experiences of the future”.
Other networks expected to make cuts this week include NBC News, insiders told CNBC, which reportedly plans to lay off fewer than 50 staff.
The Telegraph contacted representatives for CNN and NBC News for comment.
