Given their collapse, they financially need to!
CNN admitted that around 100 employees accepted voluntary buyout offers amid a company-wide restructuring by parent company AT&T, according to Deadline, which added that according to a spokesperson “the exits are purely related to the buyouts and do not involve any layoffs, contrary to a press report earlier on Monday.
Brian Stelter on Twitter
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.
The buyouts are consistent with similar offerings at HBO and Turner and will see dozens of seasoned employees leave the news brand. WarnerMedia parent AT&T is looking to restructure and reduce what was $170 billion in net debt as of the end of 2018.
The news comes the same day CNN began broadcasting some of its shows from its new WarnerMedia digs at 30 Hudson Yards, with about 1.5 million square feet of office space putting the WarnerMedia divisions under the same New York roof for the first time. Office workers, including many at CNN, had already made the move from Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, but the new studios are now lighting up on Manhattan’s Far West Side. –Deadline