By Isabella Simonetti

CNN is laying off roughly 200 employees, or about 6% of its workforce, part of a plan Chief Executive Mark Thompson says will shift the cable TV brand's emphasis toward digital growth and prepare it to launch a streaming service.

The changes at CNNs are part of the organization's continuing response "to profound and irreversible shifts in the way audiences in America and around the world consume news," Thompson wrote in a memo to staff Thursday.

The business environment for cable television has been on a downward path for years, thanks to cord-cutting and a growing distrust of legacy media. CNN averaged 578,000 prime-time viewers in the three months through December, down by 74% from its peak in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to Nielsen data, placing it firmly in third place among the major cable news networks.

MSNBC's viewership was down about 62% in that same period and Fox News, whose parent Fox Corp. shares common ownership with The Wall Street Journal's parent company, fell by 27%.

To try to claw back viewers as the second Trump administration gets under way, CNN is also revamping its show lineup for both domestic and international channels. "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" is moving to a new time slot, shifting from evenings to replace Jim Acosta's 10 a.m. program. Audie Cornish will now host "CNN This Morning" at 6 a.m. Evening programming will kick off with two hours from Jake Tapper, followed by the existing lineup from Erin Burnett, Anderson Cooper, Kaitlan Collins and Abby Phillip.

"When we approach any new administration, we should do that by reporting the hell out of it, completely, holding it to account, being absolutely tough minded," Thompson said in an interview Thursday. Still, he said it was important to be "fair minded to the extent that we don't begin with a set of preconceptions or trying to in any way play to any particular audience."

The job cuts and streaming plans are part of the organization's continuing response "to profound and irreversible shifts in the way audiences in America and around the world consume news," Thompson wrote in Thursday's staff memo.

CNN's long-term survival hinges on digital expansion as audiences receive more of their news on phones and other devices. Thompson said Thursday that the effort will be "a process of investment, experimentation and adaptation that will last years."

In a town hall meeting earlier this month, Thompson shared that parent Warner Bros. Discovery was investing $70 million to help the transition. He said Thursday that despite this latest round of cuts, total head count won't fall much this year because the company is putting money into new jobs, as well as product and technology.

Thompson has spoken at length about the importance of CNN's digital properties since he joined the network in October 2023, saying that conventional TV "can no longer define us."

In October, the network said it would ask users to pay a $3.99 monthly fee for unlimited access to CNN.com, putting in place a subscription paywall that would kick in after readers accessed a certain number of free articles.

CNN will also roll out a streaming service, though Thompson said it is still early in the planning process. The network currently offers CNN Max, a live-news service within Warner's Max streaming platform, which Thompson said has helped it learn what programming resonates with that type of audience. Its earlier foray into a stand-alone streaming service, CNN+, shut down about a month after it launched in 2022 after an underwhelming start. CNN+, which cost $5.99 a month, included programming like "Jake Tapper's Book Club" and "Parental Guidance With Anderson Cooper."

Thompson said in an interview Thursday that the new service will be more focused on news.

CNN brought on Washington Post revenue chief Alex MacCallum as its executive vice president of digital products and services last year, overseeing efforts to develop products and subscriptions. It also recently hired Philip Rucker, the Washington Post's national editor, to serve as senior vice president of editorial strategy and news.

Last week, lawyers for CNN painted a bleak picture of the company's future during a defamation trial brought by U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young. CNN settled the suit after a jury found it liable for defamation, but before punitive damages were awarded.

In court proceedings, the attorneys argued that a jury should be able to take into consideration the fact that linear cable news would likely continue to lose ground, as damages are meant to sting but not outright destroy a company. An expert witness said CNN had revenue of $1.8 billion and net income of $400 million in 2023, down from $2.2 billion and $600 million, respectively, in 2021.

Write to Isabella Simonetti at isabella.simonetti@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 23, 2025 12:58 ET (17:58 GMT)

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