Two CNN execs bolt struggling network as anxiety soars over cost-cutting after spinoff
By Ariel Zilber
Two senior CNN executives are reportedly bolting the ratings-challenged network as unease grows over the expected cost-cutting from the looming corporate spinoff.
Laura Bernardini, vice president of domestic news, and Jacque Smith, vice president for digital video, are both leaving CNN, according to Oliver Darcy’s Status newsletter.
Bernardini has spent 28 years at CNN, while Smith has been at the network for 17 years.
Laura Bernardini, vice president of news for CNN, is reportedly leaving the network.
CNN
Headshot of Jacque Smith, Vice President for CNN Digital Video Production.
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Jacque Smith, vice president for CNN digital video production, is also said to be on the way out.
CNN
Both CNN and Warner Bros. Discovery declined comment.
Their reported departures come amid rising anxiety in the newsroom, with many staffers bracing for yet another wave of upheaval as CNN is carved out of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery and bundled with other legacy cable networks.
WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels — who has a reputation as a ruthless cost-cutter — will take over the new company, called Global Networks.
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CNN’s star anchor Anderson Cooper, whose $18 million-a-year salary was reported for the first time last week, has hired a new super agent — leading to speculation he could also be on the way out.
Wiedenfels, meanwhile, struck an optimistic tone about the network’s future in a recent memo to staffers, calling himself a “deep admirer of CNN” who consumes its content “around the clock,” according to Status.
The email’s subject line — “Excitement for the Future” — did little to calm nerves, Darcy reported in his newsletter.
CNN staffers are reportedly bracing for steep cuts that are expected under incoming corporate boss Gunnar Wiedenfels.
Warner Bros. Discovery
“Everyone is wary and tired and there is so much change that we don’t understand what direction the company is going in,” one CNN staffer told Darcy.
Another added: “There are people who think CNN won’t exist at some point.”
CNN boss Mark Thompson, who’s tried to keep morale up, told staffers in a memo last week: “We hold our destiny in our own hands… If we reinvent CNN to meet the challenge of the future… we’ll succeed in all scenarios. If we don’t, we’ll suffer the same fate as any legacy company that fails to respond to a changing world.”
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who earns a reported $18 million annually, recently hired a new agent — a sign he is looking toward a post-CNN future.
Getty Images for CNN
Global Networks — which will also include TBSm HGTV and TNT — will mark CNN’s third parent company in seven years.
Under Warner Media, former boss Jeff Zucker and Jason Kilar launched CNN+, only for the streaming service to be killed weeks after launch by WBD CEO David Zaslav folliwing its $43 billion merger in 2022.
The network has lagged in the ratings race against rivals MSNBC and Fox News as Zaslav has pushed for left-leaning CNN to appeal to a more centrist audience.
Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, reportedly sought to lift morale in the network newsroom.
Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery
WBD is pouring $100 million into a new CNN streaming product set to launch this fall — and reportedly re-hiring some of the same CNN+ executives they previously let go.
“Global Networks has a robust portfolio and is set-up for success. Across many regions and teams internally, there is excitement for the opportunities of Global Networks,” a source familiar with the situation told The Post.
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WBD will retain HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures and Max as part of a new entity known as Streaming & Studios.
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