After months of speculation, CNN chairman and CEO Mark Thomspon has provided a clearer picture of the embattled network’s future. On Wednesday, Thompson sent staffers a lengthy memo that builds on the foundation for his transformation of the news organization he inherited nine months ago.
Harkening back to CNN founder Ted Turner’s entrepreneurial spirit, Thompson updated employees on their key focus areas, including digital subscription offerings, streamlining the newsgathering process, the future of the linear television business, the addition of AI and job cuts.
According to Deadline, which obtained the memo, Thompson indicated that the network will launch CNN.com’s first direct-to-consumer subscription product by the end of 2024. “We want to build on CNN.com’s reach with a new focus on engagement and frequency,” Thompson wrote, adding: “We will reimagine watching, reading and listening to our journalism in a holistic way that meets users’ changing needs and expectations across the day and week.”
Thompson also noted that additional digital products will have a video focus, promising: “Video will be at the heart of our future and a re-imagined video experience on every platform—from pure digital to streaming, FAST channels and more—it is essential for CNN’s future.”
The CNN newsroom will also undergo changes, with Thompson looking to combine domestic and international newsgathering and digital teams into one hub called Global News. The new organization will be comprised of two key work groups: news reporting and news video.
Per Thompson, the news reporting group will “chase and publish stories whether in the form of digital stories, live stories or traditional news alerts.” Meanwhile, the news video group will “capture and produce video stories increasingly in the spirit of capture once and produce/version for all platforms.” That team will also be responsible for verifying news videos from various sources.
Additional. newsroom changes include rebranding the editorial oversight team The Row as CNN Factcheck and creating a new “story manager” role responsible for overseeing “all editorial aspects of a story from beginning to publication/airing, improving editorial focus and long-term planning.”
Along with the network’s digital platforms, CNN’s linear product will also see changes. Thompson announced the creation of a TV Futures Lab—overseen by Eric Sherling, CNN’s executive vice president of U.S. Programming—that will “not only develop and manage streaming and VOD programming for the Max platform, but will lead new thinking about ways to migrate the linear news experience to other new digital environments.”
Additionally, Charlie Moore, CNN’s newly appointed vice president of primetime programming, has been tasked with finding ways to further develop and strengthen CNN’s domestic offerings during the 8-11 p.m. block.
Thompson also indicated that the network will make a “strategic push into AI” based around how to safely deploy the emerging technology in ways that “deliver our journalistic goals more effectively and responsively.”
While new hires will accompany this wave of new changes, there will also be a significant reduction in CNN’s 3,500-person workforce. Thompson indicated that around 100 jobs will be eliminated as his plans are put into place. Concrete details on which positions will be eliminated will be conveyed to affected staff by their immediate supervisors.
Thompson said he would address the layoffs as well as all the other changes he outlined in his memo during a global town hall and encouraged staff to submit questions.
“I don’t underestimate the impact this news is likely to have on everyone affected and want to thank them for everything they’ve done for this great news company over the years,” he wrote.