by Thinus Ferreira
Warner Bros. Discovery's CNN will get rid of 200 people within the operations of its traditional TV news channel business but will rehire 200 people within its digital division - 100 of which within a year - as part of its renewed pivot to digital news delivery which will include a second effort to launch a video streaming service.
CNN CEO Mark Thompson on Thursday told CNN staffers that the TV news channel is getting rid of 6% or around 200 of its workforce but will employ people within months - around 100 - on the digital side.
Warner Bros. Discovery is giving $70 million to CNN to invest in its latest digital pivot.
"The changes we're announcing today are part of an ongoing response by this great news organisation to profound and irreversible shifts in the way audiences in America and around the world consume news," Mark Thompson wrote in a staff memo.
After it started a video streaming service, CNN+ that was abruptly shut down just a few months later, Mark Thompson will now again build out a new video streaming service for CNN and will "develop a new way for digital subscribers at home and abroad to stream news programming from us on any device they choose".
"It's early days but we've already established that there's immense demand for it not just in America, but across much of the world."
CNN will also unveil a new TV schedule for CNN domestic in the United States on Thursday, which will impact its international version CNN International (DStv 401), since several of the programmes on CNN are simulcast on CNN International.
Mark Thompson says the rejigged schedule is "intended to strengthen our domestic schedule throughout the day and deliver international programming to a wider audience around the world".
"A revised international schedule will follow in a few days' time."
"We're able to achieve that with this new schedule, which will be shared and distributed broadly later today, while also placing our production costs on sustainable footing to match the changing economics of linear television platforms."
"Like the rest of our industry, we have to respond to these economics if we're to maintain high-quality services for our loyal existing audiences."
"We're also streamlining and adjusting some important aspects of how we produce our TV programming going forward."
