CNN starts job cuts after business review to reduce costs

CNN is one of the latest major companies in the United States to announce layoffs. Like the others, it also cited economic uncertainty and the need to reduce costs as the main basis for the decision.

In the case of CNN, it said that pressures from its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, was another reason for the job cuts. It was on Wednesday, Dec. 1, when the company released a notice to employees to tell them that the terminations has started.

This is expected to affect hundreds of staff working at the company. This is also said to be the global news network’s most extensive cuts in years.

CNN’s chief executive officer, Chris Licht, was appointed to his post only in May, so this is considered the first layoff under his leadership. He was the one who sent the message to employees this week and told them that the decision was really hard for the management too. In the memo, he also called the employees “part of the CNN team,” thus it is not easy to part with anyone.

According to CNN Business, the employees already know about the layoffs, so they have been anxiously bracing for it in recent weeks. They were first informed about this matter last month, and at that time, Licht told them that lots of “unsettling” changes were coming up soon.

The CEO said the company notified a “limited number of individuals” on Wednesday, including highly paid contributors, that they were laid off. He further said that once the cuts are completed, he will release more details as a follow-up. Then again, CNN did not say the exact number of employees that it would let go, but the company had around 4,400 staff.

“Our goal throughout the strategic review process has been to better align our people, processes and resources with our future priorities, strengthen our ability to deliver on CNN’s core journalistic mission and enable us to innovate in the years ahead,” part of the memo that Licht wrote to notify the workers about the job cuts. “At the highest level, the goal is to direct our resources to best serve and grow audiences for our core news programming and products.”

He went on to explain, “To achieve these goals, we will be reducing open job positions, reimagining our workflows and aligning our staffing, investments and focus around three key strategic priorities: programming, newsgathering, and digital. All decisions are designed to strengthen the core of our business.”

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