CNN starts layoffs expected to reach hundreds of staffers
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CNN (NASDAQ:WBD) has kicked off a round of layoffs - which are now expected to reach hundreds of staffers, following an all-staff memo from CEO Chris Licht.
Those cuts began Wednesday with a focus on paid contributors - a "limited number of individuals," Licht said in the memo - though impacted CNN employees will be notified on Thursday.
It's a "gut punch" to the organization and "it will be a difficult time for everyone," Licht said, according to CNN's Oliver Darcy.
CNN largely escaped making cuts during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, but this year has been another story. After parent company WarnerMedia merged with Discovery in April, new Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) chief David Zaslav signaled heavy rethinking of structure and likely job realignment to come.
Quickest to the ax was the network's barely-born streaming subscription network, CNN+, killed when it was not even a month old. Licht was setting up cuts there even before his official CNN start date of May 1.
In August, CNN canceled its 30-year-old media criticism show Reliable Sources, and host Brian Stelter left the network.
Licht told staffers then: âThere will be more changes and you might not understand it or like it."
And a month ago, Licht began to set up employees for today's news by saying that "unsettling" changes were ahead, and that plans were set up for "right-sizing" CNN.