CNN Reportedly Shutting Down Travel For Anchors and Enterprise Pieces Amid Belt-Tightening

David McNew/Newsmakers

CNN CEO Chris Licht’s cost-cutting measures at the news network continue apace.

Dylan Byers of Puck News reported Friday that financial officers at Warner Bros. Discovery – CNN’s parent company – received memos telling them to “absolutely” cease non-discretionary spending through the end of the year.

As such, Licht has paused all travel by CNN’s on-air talent that is not related to breaking news.

Byers further reported:

Michael Bass, CNN’s executive vice president of newsgathering, wrote in a memo this week there would be “no more travel for any enterprise pieces and no anchor travel,” and no booking of outside studios. “All remote interviews should be done on Webex,” he wrote, referring to the videoconferencing service, and the network should not pay for travel for guests and contributors, a drastic departure that reminded some media insiders of the days when Condé Nast replaced town car vouchers with MetroCard flex accounts.

As has been widely noted, CNN is struggling in the ratings to say the least. Its shows are regularly trounced in total viewership by the programming at MSNBC and even more so by Fox News. In July, CNN weekend shows hit a low in the ratings not encountered at the network since 1993.

The travel suspension comes after a series of high-profile changes after Warner Bros. Discovery acquired CNN in April. One of the first major moves was the cancelation of CNN+, a new streaming service that lasted just 30 days.

“Inside CNN, there is a great deal of uncertainty about what the organization will look like on the other side of this transition,” Byers added.. “The cuts will touch every aspect of CNN’s business, including programming, newsgathering and digital. Well-placed sources said the cuts are also likely to take a significant toll on CNN International, including the elimination of certain shows that may be replaced by a simulcast of CNN’s domestic feed.”