NEW YORK – Change is coming to CNN. The twenty-four hour news channel is laying off as many as 300 employees. The layoffs are coming across several divisions in the global media giant.
CNN Worldwide is a portfolio of two dozen news and information services across cable, satellite, radio, wireless devices and the Internet in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. Domestically in the United States, CNN reaches more individuals on television, the web and mobile devices than any other cable TV news organization in the United States; internationally, CNN is the most widely distributed news channel reaching more than 271 million households abroad; and CNN Digital is a top network for online news, mobile news and social media.
CNN is division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company.
The layoff figure represents 8% of CNN’s workforce. Positions are being slashed in the Atlanta, Washington, D.C., New York and Los Angeles bureaus for the network.
Some of the staff members staffers have taken voluntary buyouts, a number estimated at 130 workers.
CNN is also not filling other open positions. other open positions are not being filled. The remaining 170 positions being slashed are going to be employee layoffs which are happening over the next thirty six hours.
A high-profile departure from CNN is Darius Walker, the company Vice President and Northeast Bureau Chief who has been based in New York. Darius Walker has been with CNN for eighteen years. Walker started with the network as a senior editor on the international desk in Atlanta. Walker also worked for the company in the Washington bureau as well as at CNNfn.
Twenty-eight positions in news-gathering in Washington DC are being slashed.
CNN’s entertainment unit is also being closed. Employees who are based out of New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles are moving on. Correspondent Nischelle Turner left the network last week for Entertainment Tonight.
Online News Source Mashable is reporting that Christiane Amanpour‘s New York-based staff has also been cut.
