CNN will lay off hundreds in pursuit of more cost cuts
CNN is laying off hundreds of employees in a cost-cutting effort that illuminates the financial challenges facing a wide range of media companies as the economy teeters toward a possible recession.
The cuts began Wednesday, affecting mostly paid commentators, and were intended to finish Thursday, once all affected employees were notified in person or via Zoom.
“It is incredibly hard to say goodbye to any one member of the CNN team,” network CEO Chris Licht wrote in a Wednesday staff memo obtained by The Washington Post, describing the cuts as a “gut punch.”
Chris Cillizza, who joined CNN as a politics reporter and editor-at-large in 2017, confirmed to The Post that he has been laid off. Susan Glasser, a CNN global affairs analyst, also said that she was “one of many” part-time commentators affected by the cuts. Rachel Metz, a senior technology writer, said she was “devastated” to have been laid off Thursday.
Other television networks are planning cost-cutting measures over the winter. NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News and MSNBC, will lay off employees in January, according to a Business Insider report, although a news division spokesperson declined to comment Thursday.
ABC News parent company Disney is similarly planning cuts under the leadership of Bob Iger, who recently returned as the company’s CEO.
The country’s largest newspaper chain, Gannett, is undertaking a round of job cuts that is expected to affect roughly 200 journalists — at papers large and small — over the next two days.
The company also laid off about 400 employees in August and froze hiring for hundreds more positions. “While incredibly difficult, implementing these efficiencies and responding decisively to the ongoing macroeconomic volatility will continue to propel Gannett’s future,” Gannett spokesperson Lark-Marie Antón said in an email.
NPR is also facing a financial shortfall that will require $10 million in budget cuts over the next 10 months, CEO John Lansing told employees Wednesday. Also Wednesday, Washington Post Executive Editor Sally Buzbee informed employees of plans to close the company’s weekly print magazine, citing The Post’s plans for “global and digital transformation.”
“A lot of media companies right now are looking at the economy and saying to themselves, ‘We’re about to go into a recession and we’re going to need fewer people,’” said Chris Roush, dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University.
CNN employees have been no stranger to cutbacks this year, since Licht moved quickly to shut down the network’s expensive new streaming service, CNN Plus, in April, barely three weeks after it launched.
At the time, a network spokesperson said that about 350 employees would be affected, though some of the star journalists hired for the service — including Chris Wallace, Audie Cornish and Kasie Hunt — have remained with the network.
CNN leadership also decided to part ways earlier with media correspondent Brian Stelter and the staff of his weekly “Reliable Sources” show in August, as well as White House correspondent John Harwood.