CNN Begins Laying Off Hundreds of Employees, Targeting On-Air Contributors First
By Ken MeyerNov 30th, 2022, 11:07 am7577 comments
(Photo via Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
CNN Chief Chris Licht announced that the network will start making layoffs as part of his budget cut strategy, and it is expected to target hundreds of CNN employees.
Oliver Darcy, CNN’s senior media reporter, released a letter that Licht sent out to the entire company on Wednesday. In it, Licht announced that the first round of layoffs will impact the network’s paid contributors, and the network’s remaining staff would be informed of these changes tomorrow.
From the announcement:
To my CNN colleagues,
Our people are the heart and soul of this organization. It is incredibly hard to say goodbye to any one member of the CNN team, much less many. I recently described this process as a gut punch, because I know that is how it feels for all of us.
Today we will notify a limited number of individuals, largely some of our paid contributors, as part of a recalibrated reporting strategy. Tomorrow, we will notify impacted employees, and tomorrow afternoon I will follow up with more details on these changes.
It will be a difficult time for everyone. If your job has been impacted, you will learn more through an in-person meeting or via Zoom, depending on your location. In those meetings, you will receive information specific to you about notice period or any severance that would apply, and your anticipated last day. I want to be clear that everyone who is bonus eligible will still receive their 2022 bonuses, which are determined by company performance.
I know these changes affect both our departing colleagues and those who remain, and we have resources designed to support you. I will include a link to those resources in my follow-up email tomorrow.
Let’s take care of each other this week.
Chris
Licht has been vocal about his interest in reorienting CNN’s editorial focus on straight news reporting. He has also signaled that the network’s ratings struggles and debt from the Discovery-WarnerMedia merger could necessitate dramatic cuts for the network’s projects, including hundreds of jobs losses.
Mediaite understands that today the layoffs mostly focus on paid contributors. It’s been known around the network that Licht is more interested in subject-specific experts less than broad generalists, which will be reflected in today’s cuts. Tomorrow, salaried employees will be told and some relatively visible names from behind the scenes are expected to hear bad news also.
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