CNN’s Anderson Cooper earns $18M annually — as – Business News
CNN is reportedly paying anchor Anderson Cooper $18 million a yr — an eye-popping sum that may very well be within the crosshairs when the ratings-challenged community is spun off by its debt-ridden dad or mum company.
Cooper, the face of the community and host of its primetime show at 8 p.m., together with different anchors like Kaitlan Collins and Jake Tapper face an unsure future following Monday’s gorgeous announcement by Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav in regards to the looming break up, in response to the Puck e-newsletter.
Zaslav tapped WBD Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels to take over CNN and different cable property together with TNT, TBS, HGTV as half of a new company known as Global Networks.
Anderson Cooper is reportedly raking in $18 million a yr from CNN — even as the community faces brutal cost-cutting, cratering scores and an unsure future. Getty Images for CNN
A source advised The Post that CNN staffers are nervous about Wiedenfel, who they are saying has a fame for ruthlessly chopping prices.
“Gunnar news is not good,” the individual stated. “He is slash and burn.”
Puck media author Dylan Byers singled out Cooper and his $18 million wage as a attainable goal, contemplating the community stays mired in final place within the scores.
“Why, for instance, would Gunnar pay Anderson Cooper $18 million a year when Kaitlan Collins draws the same ratings at roughly a fifth of the salary?” Byers wrote.
According to the newest Nielsen scores, “Anderson Cooper 360” drew 647,000 whole viewers on Tuesday — or about $27 per viewer.
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“The Source with Kaitlan Collins, which airs at 9 p.m., pulled in 829,000 viewers on Tuesday, in response to Nielsen.
Cooper’s precise wage has by no means been reported and its not clear the place Byers bought the determine. The Post beforehand reported that the son of Gloria Vanderbilt is paid as a lot as $20 million a yr.
A CNN spokesperson declined to remark Cooper’s wage.
Cooper, who joined CNN in 2001, might not stick round for the purported massacre.
“By the time Gunnar gets around to it, Anderson will likely have determined that he no longer wants to read the day’s news to less than a million people every night, either,” Byers wrote.
Gunnar Wiedenfels, Warner Bros. Discovery’s chief financial officer, is set to take over the company’s flailing cable property, together with CNN. Warner Bros. Discovery
The CNN rep vigorously pushed back on Byers’ suggestion that high-salaried anchors might get extreme haircuts amid anticipated restructuring beneath Wiedenfels.
“This is a complete fabrication. There is zero truth to this,” the spokesperson stated.
The cable information pioneer — which touts itself as “The Most Trusted Name in News” — had paid out hefty contracts however its scores have plunged to historic lows lately.
During breaking information occasions, Fox News has usually quadrupled CNN’s viewers.
Fox News is a unit of Fox Corp — sister company to The Post’s company dad or mum News Corp.
Warner Bros. Discovery beneath the management of CEO David Zaslav lately introduced it will break up into two corporations. AFP by way of Getty Images
The economics of sustaining a sprawling world information operation with costly expertise have gotten more and more arduous to defend, particularly as youthful viewers flip to TikTok and YouTube for information.
Last fall, CNN denied raises to veteran anchors Tapper and Wolf Blitzer as rank-and-file journalists braced for layoffs, as The Post reported.
Cooper reportedly earns a wage that’s 5 occasions more than fellow prime time anchor Kaitlan Collins, who attracts across the identical quantity of viewers. Bloomberg by way of Getty Images
As half of the Warner Bros. Discovery breakup, Zaslav will keep HBO, Warner Bros. Studios and the Max streaming platform.
Last week, 59% of shareholders voted towards his large $51.9 million pay bundle for 2024 — a robust signal of investor frustration.
WBD was fashioned in 2022 in a $43.1 billion merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery.
The majority of WBD’s roughly $37 billion in debt load shall be foisted onto the Global Network.
