CNN is reportedly set to cut some of its top talent in a round of post-election layoffs.
The rumors, first reported by album newsIt comes as high-paid personalities such as Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer were reportedly recently denied raises.
The two already have salaries of $7 million and $3 million, while stars like Anderson Cooper take home $20 million annually.
Kaitlan Collins and Erin Burnett also earn inflated earnings: $3 million and $6 million each, respectively.
Insiders told Puck that the new round of layoffs will likely see on-air talent like them hit, as the network’s new CEO looks to free up finances amid declining ratings.
CNN is set to reject some of its top talent in a round of post-election layoffs, according to a new insider report.
The rumors, first reported by Puck News, come as stars like Anderson Cooper continue to take home $20 million salaries despite declining ratings.
“In the coming months, I’m told, CNN will implement another round of layoffs affecting hundreds of employees across the organization,” journalist Dylan Byers wrote on Friday, referencing CNN’s recent 100-person layoff seen over the summer.
The new round of layoffs, experts said, will be more geared toward the production side.
As a result, reporters and correspondents will have to cover their downtime, they said, describing how on-air workers will be “asked to take on more responsibilities that were previously handled by teams of producers and production assistants.”
Byers wrote: ‘Redundant assignments will be rejected and several divisions will be reduced or even eliminated.
“Some of the live talent is likely to be affected as well,” he revealed.
Sources who spoke to the reporter, who worked at CNN for three years before founding Puck, added that the looming layoffs are part of an overall plan, one that places value on the station’s digital platforms.
The man behind it, they said, is none other than new CEO Mark Thompson, the former New York Times boss hired to overhaul the network under its parent Warner Bros. Discovery.
The former BBC boss took over from then-languishing leader Chris Licht last August and since then ratings have fallen by more than 20 per cent.
Erin Burnett and Kaitlan Collins also earn inflated earnings: $3 million and $6 million each.
The architect of the layoffs is CEO Mark Thompson, who was hired late last summer to right a sinking ship following the failures of his predecessor Chris Licht.
The news also comes as veteran hosts Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer were reportedly recently denied raises, after earning salaries of $3 million and $7 million, respectively.
Under Licht, a tenure that lasted just over a year, the station went from being the most-watched cable news network on election nights to one of the least-watched.
In 2016, when it was led by ousted leader Jeff Zucker, it was the most-watched network overall, a distinction now held by Fox News.
At the time, CNN was averaging 13.3 million viewers in prime time. Today, there are only about 800,000.
Meanwhile, right-wing Fox hosts like Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity and Greg Gutfeld are averaging 2.8 million viewers in the same time slots, the most in a field currently being disrupted by streaming and other forms of media.
Adding insult to injury were CNN’s problems on Election Day, a day that eight years ago would have given it a decisive victory in the ratings.
However, after a Trump presidency and a Biden Administration mandate, it lost to MSNBC in terms of ratings, something never seen before, as it only attracted 5.1 million views that night.
MSNBC, meanwhile, grossed $6 million, a figure nearly twice eclipsed by Fox News’s $10.3 million.
The numbers, relayed this week in the form of Nielsen statistics, appear to show a changing field when it comes to cable news, a field that appears to continue into Trump’s second term.
Thompson, the former head of the BBC and the New York Times, has reportedly told some of his most notable and highest-paid faces to “take it or leave it” as he instead seeks to put emphasis on the company’s digital strategies.
Veteran news anchor Chris Wallace announced Monday that he is leaving CNN after several years and earning an $8.5 million salary. Insiders previously said they were considering a pay cut for the 77-year-old.
As a result, “hundreds” will be laid off, insiders said, speaking to a former CNN employee. Pictured is CNN headquarters at Hudson Yards in Manhattan.
The network’s struggles over the past eight years have seen it replaced by Fox News as the cable leader. Pictured are Fox News anchors Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier on election night, where they beat CNN by nearly 5 million viewers.
To combat this, CNN plans to create new positions that serve Thompson’s new digital vision, anonymous sources told Byers, and one source raised how the incoming changes may even result in a net gain of employees.
Still, if the insiders’ warning proves true, hundreds more people will lose their jobs, sources said, describing to Byers a climate at the team’s Manhattan office rife with ‘Stress and a lot of anxiety.’
The layoffs will occur in the coming months, they said, without offering further details.
It remains to be seen who will be affected.
It was revealed on Monday that veteran host Chris Wallace would not be renewing his $8.5 million-a-year contract, and the 77-year-old confirmed the fact in an interview with the Daily Beast as he mulled a full-time podcasting career. .
“This is the first time in 55 years that I’ve been out of work,” he said that same day. “I’m really excited and liberated by that.”
As for other high-paid figures like Cooper and Burnett, their fate remains uncertain.
Days earlier, The Ankler had reported that Tapper and Blitzer were denied raises and that officials were considering a pay cut for Wallace.
The newsletter also revealed how Tapper resigned himself to a three-year contract, one that would pay him the same $7 million annually he had earned in previous years.
