CNN Cuts Not Quite the Bloodbath That Was Expected

A culling arrived at CNN on Thursday, though not one as large as most people expected.

CNN will lay off 200 people in its TV business, or about 6 percent of its staff, as part of its planned digital revolution, CEO Mark Thompson told staff in a memo on Thursday.

The news came after reports on Wednesday suggested the network would cut “hundreds” in massive layoffs after months of internal dread. Instead, the company will seek to hire roughly the same amount of people later this year to boost its digital service.

The renewed focus is bolstered by a $70 million investment made by Warner Bros. Discovery, its parent company, and new hirings in The Washington Post‘s Phil Rucker as a head of editorial strategy and CBS News’ Andrew Roy as its new London bureau chief. It aimed to hire about 100 of its new jobs within the first half of 2025.

“America and the world need high quality, fair-minded, trustworthy sources of news more than ever,” Thompson wrote. “This difficult and sometimes painful process of change is the only way to make sure we can still provide it.”

Part of CNN’s new plans: a new streaming service. The new product, which has not been named, will be similar to its TV product but operate in tandem with CNN’s offering on Max. It evokes its its past failed attempt at a streaming product in CNN+, which shuttered in 2022 after roughly a month.

Thompson also confirmed various changes for the network’s top talent, including Wolf Blitzer, Pamela Brown, and Jim Acosta. Blizter and Brown will host a rebranded Situation Room at 10 a.m., while Acosta will pivot to a different role. Status previously reported that Thompson wanted to move the highly-rated Acosta elsewhere, potentially to the network’s post-primetime midnight slot. Audie Cornish and Kasie Hunt, both of whom joined the network to help launch CNN+, will also host new morning and afternoon shows, respectively.

Some of CNN’s production operation will move from New York or Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, the network announced.

Thompson, who joined the network in October 2023, has prioritized a shift from linear TV to digital from his start even as the network has still depended on traditional sources of revenue like cable carriage fees and advertising. But by those metrics, the network has floundered over the last year as viewers turned off the news and advertising revenue declined.

The network had its worst performance in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic last year, and it has fallen behind competitors MSNBC and Fox News since the November election. MSNBC beat CNN on election night last year for the first time.

Still, Thompson remained bullish on the network’s future. The network aims to rake in $1 billion in digital revenue by 2030.

“2025 has only just begun and yet we’ve already seen more than enough news at home and abroad to be reminded just how important it is that this great news organization succeeds,” Thompson wrote. “Given our brand and reputation, given the incredible talent at our disposal, given that spirit of innovation and commitment that has always been a hallmark of CNN, I truly believe that we can do just that.”