Heh! Heh! This is CNN.
CNN is planning to cut up to 300 jobs, “many being older employees with years at the network,” according to a report on Monday.
According to FTVLive, a website that monitors the television industry, “Word is that just under 200 people will be pink slipped and just over 100 will be offered a buyout.” Staffers are reportedly calling the cuts a “massive brain drain” because so many veteran employees are being given pink slips.
Hmmm. Whatever could be the cause of this? Could it be that no one watches CNN?
[…]
Aidan McLaughlin, an editor for Mediaite, tweeted that, according to a CNN source, the cable network is not making layoffs, but “more than 100 staffers took part in a voluntary buyout program”A CNN spox tells me there are no layoffs at the network, but more than 100 staffers took part in a voluntary buyout program https://t.co/Z6bie8WPgi
— Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) May 6, 2019
CNN host Brian Stelter also knocked down rumors that layoffs were in the works.There’s a rumor making the rounds today about big impending layoffs at CNN. A CNN spokeswoman is knocking it down on the record: “No layoffs.” There WERE voluntary buyouts throughout the organization, and about 100 people opted for it.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 6, 2019
“Voluntary buyouts’? That’s an euphemism for layoffs with separation pay. I can remember back when I worked for IBM we had all sorts of euphemisms for layoffs. One of them was “workforce rebalancing”. Your job went away and you had thirty days to find a job in another part of the company. If you didn’t you were “rebalanced” out of a job and were released with separation pay.
I started this blog when I still worked for IBM but to hide that fact I called it TCIDNN (The company I Dare Not Name). Just like with Scott Adams, people thought I worked for their company. Only three people figgered out I worked for IBM. One of them read one of my posts about a current layoff program and emailed me. “Dude, you’re busted! You work for IBM. I googled “workforce rebalancing” and came up with IBM.”
It’s not unusual for downsizing companies to offer voluntary buyouts, hoping to avoid layoffs, so we’ll have to wait and see if there is a need for cuts after the voluntary arrangements are agreed to.
The cuts come on the heels of devastating April ratings for CNN, with the lowest number of total viewers in five years. The network’s prime-time lineup plummeted 26 percent in April compared to the same month last year. CNN’s total audience in prime time was a pathetic 767,000. Compare that to Fox News, with 2.395 million viewers and third-place MSNBC with 1.660 million. CNN’s Cuomo Primetime was one of the hardest hit, with a mere 971,000 viewers in April — the worst month in the show’s history. Sean Hannity, Cuomo’s Fox counterpart in the 9 p.m. slot, dominated the ratings with a total audience of 3.086 million. Fox’s Tucker Carlson Tonight came in second, with 2.834 million viewers and MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show was third with 2.630 million viewers.
Maybe riding the Russian collusion bullshit wasn’t a good business plan. Maybe people are sick of loudmouth Jim Acosta. Maybe people are sick of the constant Trump bashing. Look for even more downsizing at CNN in the future if it continues with its Trump bashing business plan.
At the rate CNN is going, its only viewers will be in airports.
I’m going to theorize that CNN never had enough viewers to be viable. It’s just that you were forced to get CNN with your cable TV package and they received royalties that way. More people dumping cable is killing the dead weight networks.
They’ll get rid of the old timers and bring a new crop of far lefties. They’ll continue to try to push the country further left.
Hey Denny
“Maybe they can learn code….”
Trump Derangement Syndrome just went from a profession to a hobby.
I was in the news business when CNN started. It was very exciting because their philosophy was that the news was the star. One could be an ordinary looking person and get a job at CNN. Just be a good reporter. Ratings were good, and it became the first place people turned for breaking news, especially when the major networks cut back severely on foreign bureaus in the 80s. CNNs downfall is deserved, but it saddens me.
I have to agree with Juan. Ted Turner is and was a nut case but he was also a visionary who had the right idea for cable news back in 1980. I traveled extensively back then and it was great to get such concise new in a 15-30 minute recycle in my hotel room.
How the mighty have fallen!!!
I’m wondering if CNN is counting all the people in all the airports as ‘viewers’ to get their totals?
I guess that “rebalance” would work, except I think of almost everybody at CNN as being unbalanced in the first place.
Could it be that CNN is losing viewers because most of them have jobs now?
How long before CNN joins the NYT as having more staff than viewers/readers?
Back in1997 before the Grim Reaper got around to my group ,I was in a meeting with Senior staff members chaired by the Director of Company Purchasing Operations to discuss Several Capital Equipment purchases.approved by Corporate.
This was on a Friday rumored to be Black Friday but the Director announced that we who were in attendance here would not be affected by any of the planned downsizing. About 20 minutes into the meeting this Director received a message he was being summoned to a immediate priority meeting in Employee Relations.
He looked around at us at the conference table & said Well I probably will not be back. Shortly after he left , we received word indeed he had been terminated & we could return to our respective departments.
I went to the VP of Manufacturing to ask who was now in charge of supervising these major Equipment Purchases. I was informed since I had investigated, selected & wrote the the justification to make these purchases…….I was now that person.
Well Idid accomplice that task but 8 months later the VP of Manufacturing was gone followed shortly there after by “The Dirty 30 ” who received letters telling us to take early retirement or lose our retirement benefit packages.
So I left the front door on a Friday as the former Supervisor of Plant Tooling Operations & Advanced Mfg Engineer for Capital Equipment Acquisition. I returned on the following Monday to the backdoor as the Owner / Operator of my company as a vendor for outsourced work.
Frankly this was the best thing which could of happened for me, after my experiences with Corporate Idiots & office politics even the IRS Audit I went thru several years back was almost enjoyable.
Yep those where the fun days, get laid off on a Friday return on a Monday as a contractor earning double my former salary and doing half the work! Best thing to happen.
It’s not just airports, hotels have forced CNN viewing over breakfast, which is why I quit eating breakfast in the hotel and take the points instead. Honestly airports seem to be cutting back on blaring CNN “news” everywhere.
Not all airports run CNN. My small local airport Kenai,Alaska shows Fox News.Mainly because most Alaskans would speak up and tell the person in charge to turn off that S…t. A great place to live in spite of cost of living.
Zucker should be the first fired.
Just heard that there are more working prostitutes in Las Vegas than actual CNN viewers. Sounds about right.