CNN announced Thursday it will lay off hundreds of workers to cut costs.
Longtime anchor Robin Meade (pictured) and political journalist Chris Cillizza were among the casualties in the first round of layoffs.
CNN will no longer produce live programs for HLN, including “Morning Express with Robin Meade.” Meade has been with the network since 2001.
“CNN This Morning” will replace “Morning Express,” according to Variety.
Other staffers who lost their jobs include Mary Ann Fox, Alison Kosik, Martin Savidge, and Alex Field, Variety reported.
CEO Chris Licht announced the first round of layoffs in an internal memo on Wednesday. He said the move would come as a “gut punch” to hundreds of workers but that it was necessary.
“Our people are the heart and soul of this organization. It is incredibly hard to say goodbye to any one member of the CNN team, much less many,” Licht said.
CNN was recently acquired by the Manhattan-based media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav made a commitment to investors that the company would cut $3 billion in costs.
The nation’s first 24-hour cable news channel was launched by Turner Broadcasting System in 1980.
My heart always goes out to those affected by media layoffs, but Chris Cillizza, literally the dumbest reporter in all of media, was just fired from CNN.
— Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) December 1, 2022
i was laid off from @CNN today (and i'm not the only one). i'm devastated; i loved my job. i was CNN's only AI reporter, and the *last remaining* CNN Digital reporter in the San Francisco Bay Area. i'm taking a beat to breathe, but i'll be looking for a new reporting job ASAP.
— Rachel Metz on mastodon @rachelmetz@mstdn.social (@rachelmetz) December 1, 2022
CNN has over a hundred paid on-air contributors, most earn a six figure income to appear when needed. The highest profile contributors earn $500,000 annually for their sporadic part-time work. They’re the group being trimmed first, as hundreds of layoffs begin at the network.
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) December 1, 2022
