CNN Facing Cuts, Difficult Days Ahead After Corporate Spin-Off

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It has only been three years since Warner Media merged with Discovery Communications to form a new company called Warner Bros. Discovery. But earlier this month we learned that the company is essentially reversing that merger by spinning off its cable channels into a new entity.

Warner Bros. Discovery is splitting into two separate companies — a dramatic shakeup that will create one division focused on streaming and Hollywood blockbusters and the other on cable TV and global networks…

One company — tentatively called Global Networks — will hold familiar cable channels like CNN, TBS and TNT as well as international assets and the Discovery+ streaming service…

[CEO David] Zaslav will stay on as the head of the new Streaming & Studios business, while current CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels will take over as CEO of Global Networks.

To put it bluntly, CEO Zaslav will continue to lead the movie and TV production side of the company, plus HBO Max while CFO Wiedenfels is put in charge of the cable channels that haven’t been doing well. Lots of people have been shifting from cable subscriptions to streaming services and that makes those cable channels a drag on the bottom line. That could be especially bad news for CNN in general and for Anderson Cooper in particular.

Zaslav tapped WBD Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels to start looking for ways to cut costs when he takes over CNN and other cable assets as part of a new company called Global Networks.

“Gunnar news is not good,” one source told The Post on Thursday. “He is slash and burn.”

Puck media writer Dylan Byers singled out Cooper as a possible target.

“Why, for instance, would Gunnar pay Anderson Cooper $18 million a year when Kaitlan Collins draws the same ratings at roughly a fifth of the salary?” Byers wrote.

Today, Fox News has a story up suggesting the cuts will go well beyond Cooper and even other top-paid anchors. It will hit the producers of these shows as well.

“Putting a bean counter as CEO sends a very clear message: this is finally the beginning of the long-overdue correction of the [Jeff] Zucker-era excesses,” a media insider close to CNN told Fox News Digital.

“It’s not just the overpriced talent. It’s the overpriced producers. The overpriced executives. The superfluous reporters who barely are on the air. All will either be exited or forced to take massive pay cuts,” the media insider said. 

“But it will be most devastating for the rank and file,” they continued. “With no union protections, there will be massive layoffs and those remaining will be asked to do the work of their departed colleagues.”…

CNN has hit various ratings lows in recent memory and had its second-worst month ever in the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54 across both total day and primetime viewers in May. 

CNN’s ratings didn’t drop as much as MSNBC’s did in May, but they started with fewer viewers to lose.

In primetime programming for the month of May 2025, Fox News was up 23% with an average of 2.46 million viewers. Meanwhile, MSNBC had an average 877,000 viewers, which was down 24%, and CNN raked in an average 426,000, down 18%. Total day programming saw Fox News at an average of 1.56 million viewers (up 21%), MSNBC down 33% with an average of 545,000 viewers, and CNN down 24% with 353,000 average viewers.

With 2024 being an election year and generally bringing more viewers to cable news shows, the post-election decline is not surprising. But seeing a double-digit drop on MSNBC and CNN is likely concerning for the networks.

The spin off won’t happen until next year so it could be a months before we see big changes happening, but it seems likely CNN is going to be downsized in the near future.