CNN execs bolt struggling network as anxiety soars – Business News
Two senior CNN executives are reportedly bolting the ratings-challenged network as unease grows over the anticipated cost-cutting from the looming company spinoff.
Laura Bernardini, vice president of home information, and Jacque Smith, vice president for digital video, are each leaving CNN, in response to Oliver Darcy’s Status e-newsletter.
Bernardini has spent 28 years at CNN, whereas Smith has been on the network for 17 years.
Laura Bernardini, vice president of information for CNN, is reportedly leaving the network. CNN
Jacque Smith, vice president for CNN digital video manufacturing, can be mentioned to be on the best way out. CNN
Both CNN and Warner Bros. Discovery declined remark.
Their reported departures come amid rising anxiety within the newsroom, with many staffers bracing for yet one more wave of upheaval as CNN is carved out of mum or dad company Warner Bros. Discovery and bundled with different legacy cable networks.
WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels — who has a popularity as a ruthless cost-cutter — will take over the new company, known as Global Networks.
CNN’s star anchor Anderson Cooper, whose $18 million-a-year wage was reported for the primary time final week, has employed a new tremendous agent — resulting in hypothesis he may be on the best way out.
Wiedenfels, in the meantime, struck an optimistic tone concerning the network’s future in a current memo to staffers, calling himself a “deep admirer of CNN” who consumes its content material “around the clock,” in response to Status.
The electronic mail’s subject line — “Excitement for the Future” — did little to calm nerves, Darcy reported in his e-newsletter.
CNN staffers are reportedly bracing for steep cuts which might be anticipated beneath incoming company boss Gunnar Wiedenfels. Warner Bros. Discovery
“Everyone is wary and tired and there is so much change that we don’t understand what direction the company is going in,” one CNN staffer instructed Darcy.
Another added: “There are people who think CNN won’t exist at some point.”
CNN boss Mark Thompson, who’s tried to keep morale up, instructed staffers in a memo final week: “We hold our destiny in our own hands… If we reinvent CNN to meet the challenge of the future… we’ll succeed in all scenarios. If we don’t, we’ll suffer the same fate as any legacy company that fails to respond to a changing world.”
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who earns a reported $18 million yearly, just lately employed a new agent — a signal he’s wanting towards a post-CNN future. Getty Images for CNN
Global Networks — which may even embody TBSm HGTV and TNT — will mark CNN’s third mum or dad company in seven years.
Under Warner Media, former boss Jeff Zucker and Jason Kilar launched CNN+, just for the streaming service to be killed weeks after launch by WBD CEO David Zaslav folliwing its $43 billion merger in 2022.
The network has lagged within the scores race in opposition to rivals MSNBC and Fox News as Zaslav has pushed for left-leaning CNN to appeal to a more centrist viewers.
Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, reportedly sought to elevate morale within the network newsroom. Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery
WBD is pouring $100 million into a new CNN streaming product set to launch this fall — and reportedly re-hiring some of the identical CNN+ executives they beforehand let go.
“Global Networks has a robust portfolio and is set-up for success. Across many regions and teams internally, there is excitement for the opportunities of Global Networks,” a source aware of the scenario instructed The Post.
WBD will retain HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures and Max as half of a new entity identified as Streaming & Studios.
