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CNN chief Mark Thompson announces sweeping overhaul of news network, cuts 100 jobs
CNN —
Mark Thompson, the CNN chief executive appointed last year to modernize the news network, unveiled a sweeping set of changes at the iconic channel on Wednesday, announcing plans to build a billion-dollar digital business, experiment with artificial intelligence and overhaul key newsroom structures.
The far-reaching measures, which Thompson described to employees in a memo as a “key milestone in CNN’s transformation,” will result in about 100 employees, or about three percent of the workforce, being laid off. Those employees, Thompson said, will be eligible for severance packages.
Since his appointment last year, Thompson has been candid about the challenges CNN faces, emphasizing to employees that swift and drastic measures are needed to reorient the television-focused news organization toward a digital future.
Like other traditional media companies, CNN has relied heavily on carriage fees from the traditional cable news package throughout its four-decade history, a declining business that has been turned upside down by the advent of streaming services like Netflix. While the company still makes hundreds of millions of dollars in profits each year, shifting the network business away from the contract cable industry that provides the bulk of CNN’s revenue to position it for the future will be an enormously difficult challenge.
Art Streiber/Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.
Mark Thompson officially started Oct. 9 as CNN’s chief executive and chairman and will also serve as the network’s editor-in-chief.
“Transforming a great news organization into the future is not something that happens overnight. It happens in stages and over time,” Thompson said in his memo to staff. “Today’s announcements do not answer every question or seek to solve every challenge we face. However, they represent a significant step forward, and I hope you will read about them in that spirit.”
Thompson’s announcement that he intends to build a digital subscription business generating more than $1 billion in revenue represents a cornerstone of his strategy to “future-proof CNN.” A direct-to-consumer subscription product has long been seen by CNN’s leadership as the answer to declining revenues caused by the decline of linear television.
The former management launched CNN+, a subscription streaming service that was quickly shuttered when CNN’s former parent company, WarnerMedia, merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Television. The siloed news streaming service didn’t fit with Warner Bros. Discovery’s business strategy, which called for building a superstreamer akin to its cable news package. CNN now boasts a much more cost-effective streaming service, CNN Max, which lives alongside other brands like HBO inside its parent company’s Max streaming service.
Thompson, who was light on details when announcing his plans for a digital subscription business, said CNN will create “products that deliver essential news, analysis and context in compelling new formats and experiences.” He said the first product would launch by the end of 2024.
Thompson, who previously served as chief executive of The New York Times, has pushed to expand the paper’s offerings beyond mainstream news, acquiring the analysis site The Wirecutter and launching the outlet’s cooking vertical, among other initiatives.
“We want to build on CNN.com’s reach with a new focus on engagement and frequency — how much time our users spend with us and how often they return — improving the quality of the product experience and giving users powerful reasons to return to us more often,” Thompson said in his memo.
As he works to modernize CNN’s business, Thompson revealed plans to embrace artificial intelligence tools, aiming to “recapture the ‘pioneering spirit’ that Ted Turner spoke of at our founding and reclaim a leadership position in the news experiences of the future.”
Thompson said CNN will make a “strategic push” into AI to “determine how best to safely leverage this new, emerging technology to serve our audiences and achieve our journalistic goals more effectively and responsively.”
His transformative measures will also include a dramatic overhaul of CNN’s newsroom, which has been largely divided into three divisions: U.S. television, international television and digital. Thompson said the structural changes he is implementing will unify the three branches under one roof.
CNN will also further adopt a “follow the sun” model, in which news is overseen at any given time by the company’s bureaus around the world. As part of that effort, Thompson said CNN’s Hong Kong bureau will see an “expanded role” and that the organization would “make greater use” of its bureaus in London and Los Angeles.
“This will streamline newsgathering workflows and put editorial direction closer to the story,” Thompson explained. “It will better equip us to handle a wider range of platform needs around the clock and mean we can flex news desk resources when the news cycle takes an unexpected turn.”
While Thompson has focused primarily on digital offerings, he also announced plans to breathe new life into CNN’s television programming. Thompson said Charlie Moore, the longtime executive producer of “Anderson Cooper 360” who was recently promoted to vice president of primetime programming, will “find ways to further develop and strengthen” the network’s television offerings. Thompson also announced the creation of a “TV Futures Lab” that will “not only develop and manage streaming andprogramming for the Max platform, but also lead new thinking on ways to migrate the linear news experience to other new digital environments.”
The changes come after years of strategy shifts and cuts at the pioneering cable news network. After longtime leader Jeff Zucker abruptly left the company in early 2022, the company was left without a clear direction.
Warner Bros. Discovery then named veteran television producer Chris Licht to replace Zucker. Licht was forced to lay off hundreds of employees early in his tenure and never articulated a clear path for CNN to move into the digital future. Compounding his lack of vision, Licht’s brief one-year tenure was marked by a series of serious missteps.
Thompson, who is widely credited with revitalizing The Times, was named CNN’s chief executive last summer after Licht’s tumultuous tenure in the role. Since then, Thompson has spoken consistently about the need to transform CNN’s business but has largely avoided offering specifics. Thompson’s announcement on Wednesday indicates that he is now ready to execute a more concrete plan.
Whether Thompson can successfully build a billion-dollar digital news business at CNN remains to be seen. Timing is also of the essence for Thompson as the cable news business continues to collapse. At The Times, the newspaper announced earlier this year that its digital subscription business will generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue, more than a decade after Thompson took the helm and began implementing changes there.
This story has been updated with additional context and developments.