On Thursday, CNN announced that it would eliminate roughly 200 of its classic TV careers and establish a similar number of new electronic positions, including information scientists and product engineers as well as various journalist types.
The cable company is setting a course for expansion as a result of the planned cuts and growth on the online side of the business, which are necessary given declining TV viewership, advertising, and cord-cutting.
The affected work represent about 6 % of CNN’s workforce of about 3, 300 people. About 1, 000 job in , Atlanta , out of the Midtown offices.
Mark Thompson, who has been running CNN for 15 weeks,  , told The New York Times , half of the new jobs will get hired in the first quarter of this year.
” The process of change is vital if we’re to live in the future, but I both acknowledge and regret its very genuine human outcomes”, he wrote in a letter to CNN team Thursday.
The bulk of CNN’s online operations are based in , Atlanta , so these changes could result in more online employees directly compared to , New York , or , Washington, D. C.  , CNN was founded in , Atlanta , by billionaire , Ted Turner , in 1980, but its offices and administration have been based in , New York , for many years, particularly during Jeff Zucker’s work as chief from 2013 to 2022.
” The long-term aim appears to be reducing the , New York , footprints and transitioning much of the business to its , Atlanta , campus”, said , Oliver Darcy, former CNN media poet who left last year to move Status, an independent internet email. He noted that , Atlanta , has always been a cheaper place for CNN to building its staff than , New York.
CNN stated in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that it is “using some resources to set us up for success” and” to fully implement the state-of-the-art facilities applicable to CNN in our classic founding home of Atlanta” in order to continue providing journalism to our linear audiences while also serving a multiplatform and generally online audience.
In his staff memo, Thompson noted:” Our objective is a simple one: to shift CNN’s gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting and, by doing that, to secure CNN’s future as one of the world’s greatest news organizations”.
Thompson also told the , Times , that “if we do not follow the audiences to the new platforms with real conviction and scale, our future prospects will not be good”.
Over the past 35 years, the media company’s cable network has made the majority of the money and profits, but shifting viewership patterns are affecting its bottom line. And since the November presidential election, interest in news has decreased significantly, with ratings for CNN dramatically declining for both its traditional TV and digital sides.
Thompson began making announcements about his plans to concentrate more on digital operations early last year, but he didn’t start making significant moves until after the presidential inauguration.
Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, has offered up$ 70 million to help CNN make the transition, the company said. According to CNN, the company hopes to generate$ 1 billion from its digital business each year by 2030. It did not disclose how much revenue its digital side generates right now.
CNN , launched a paywall , for much of its , CNN.com , content last year, costing$ 3.99 a month or$ 29.99 a year. It did not make the most recent subscription numbers available. ( Readers can read a select number of stories per month, but subscribers can access unrestricted content and receive bonus content for an extended period of time. )
Thompson had previously announced plans for a subscription streaming service, but he did not provide any specifics for the streaming service’s availability other than the fact that it will include both feature- and lifestyle-focused products. He ran , The New York Times , from 2004 to 2012 and helped it introduce moneymaking puzzle, cooking and shopping features.
In 2022, CNN launched a challenging paid streaming service called CNN+. But that product was dismantled just weeks after CNN’s new corporate owners,  , Warner Bros. Discovery, took over in a cost-cutting move.
Frank Sesno, former CNN D. C. bureau chief and current media and public affairs professor at , George Washington University, does not envy the difficult challenge Thompson faces.
” While the shift is absolutely necessary”, Sesno said, “it remains an untested gamble. Can they take over the company’s revenue and audience from its height? And it’s more than money. When a TV is on CNN in a hotel lobby or airport lounge or family living room, it becomes a focal point, a centerpiece. Digitally, you can reach more people but does it define itself as a compelling brand”?
In addition, the digital world “is a crowded universe and CNN is a little late to the game ( when it comes to streaming and subscriptions ). I’m hoping Ted Turner’s DNA, which gave birth to the revolution in news, will survive. It’s a tall order and will require excellent content, real journalism and creative inspiration”.
Thompson is tweaking CNN’s daytime schedule, with veteran D. C. based anchor , Wolf Blitzer , moving to mornings and , Washington D. C. based anchor Jim Acosta ‘s , 10 a. m.  , show dropped. Acosta has reported aggressively about , Donald Trump , over the past eight years and has occasionally been a target of Trump’s ire.
Without giving a clear reason as to why Thompson pulled Acosta from CNN’s lineup, Darcy claimed. Thompson, who has been a devoted employee for nearly 20 years,” could have found a way to keep Acosta anchoring,” especially given that he posts some of the network’s highest ratings. … It’s impossible to ignore that his inexplicable decision comes just as , Donald Trump , returns to power”.
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