CNN Boss Chris Licht Signals Layoffs Amid Economic Downturn: ‘These Changes Will Not Be Easy’
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery
CNN CEO Chris Licht emailed the network’s staff on Wednesday afternoon and noted since taking over in May he has been drilling down on the business’s structure and priorities and signaled upcoming budget cuts and possible layoffs before the end of the year.
Licht, who took over the ratings beleaguered network amid a debt-heavy merger, referenced “widespread concern over the global economic outlook,” adding that “we must factor that risk into our long-term planning.”
“All this together will mean noticeable change to this organization. That, by definition, is unsettling. These changes will not be easy because they will affect people, budgets, and projects,” Licht wrote.
Chris Licht just sent this note to CNN staff: “There is widespread concern over the global economic outlook, and we must factor that risk into our long-term planning. All this together will mean noticeable change to this organization. … These changes will not be easy…” pic.twitter.com/4eKUuitYFv
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 26, 2022
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that CNN’s annual operating costs from 2022 are “estimated at about $882 million this year, according to estimates from S&P Global Market Intelligence.”
“Even a single-digit percentage cut from that budget would shave millions of dollars and potentially dozens of jobs from the network,” the Times explained.
Compounding the bad news for CNN is the network’s annual profit “is set to drop below $1 billion this year for the first time since 2016, when Donald Trump was elected president,” noted CNBC.
Additionally, CNN’s parent company, formed in the merger that saw Licht take over the network, Warner Bros. Discovery, has also had its valuation “cut in half this year as investors have lowered their expectations on global streaming subscriber growth and macroeconomic pressures have pressured advertising revenue.”
Licht spoke to CNBC and offered some additional color to his strategy for remaking CNN into a profitable and highly rated network again.
“The brand is the most trusted brand in the world when it comes to journalism, right up there with the BBC,” Licht told the outlet, referencing his previously reported strategy to refocus on news and less on opinion.
“I think what happened a little bit here in the past was it’s easy to take the quick sugar high of ratings and outrage. So, I’m trying to do no harm to a great brand,” Licht added.
