Hollywood Reporter; CNN Chief Outlines Cuts: HLN Slashed, International Reorganized, “Core” News Product In Focus

Story from Hollywood Reporter:

Forty years after it was founded by Ted Turner, HLN is getting out of the live TV business. by Ted Turner, HLN is getting out of the live TV business.

The CNN offshoot, originally called Headline News, has canceled all of its live programming, with its crime-focused docuseries merging with sister Warner Bros. Discovery channel ID under Kathleen Finch.

The HLN shakeup is part of wider layoffs that took place Thursday at CNN Worldwide, as CEO Chris Licht seeks to cut back on costs amid an increasingly difficult economic environment.

“Our goal throughout the strategic review process has been to better align our people, processes and resources with our future priorities, strengthen our ability to deliver on CNN’s core journalistic mission and enable us to innovate in the years ahead,” Licht told staff in a memo Thursday afternoon. “At the highest level, the goal is to direct our resources to best serve and grow audiences for our core news programming and products.”

And the core, as is clear from the cuts, is on CNN, with its ancillary networks feeling the brunt of the cuts, none more so than HLN.

With the changes, HLN has canceled its long-running morning show Morning Express with Robin Meade.

Meade has anchored HLN’s morning programming since 2005, and it was routinely the most popular programming on the channel. While generally drawing a much smaller audience than morning shows on MSNBC, Fox News and the broadcast networks (as well as sister channel CNN), its fast pace and Meade’s steady presence kept a small set of viewers tuning in.

“I want to take a moment to thank Robin Meade— she is not only an exceptionally popular anchor, but also one of the longest-running morning hosts in history,” Licht wrote Thursday. “I know the HLN audience will miss her and the other HLN talent.”

HLN will simulcast CNN This Morning going forward.

But CNN International also saw a reorganization, with its 5 p.m. show also shifting to a CNN U.S. simulcast. And at CNN en Español, Licht says it will “expand its audience by diversifying the network’s programming beyond news,” likely by leaning on Spanish-language content produced elsewhere at Warner Bros. Discovery. The network will still have news for now, but Licht adds that they will “develop a far more robust digital platform for CNNE with the aim of launching it in 2024.”

The CNN contributor ranks have been slashed, with Licht outlining a new focus: “In some areas, we will rely more on our CNN journalists. Overall, we will engage contributors who are subject-matter experts that expand and diversify the viewpoints we bring our audience.”

And there were also cuts in newsgathering, though Licht writes that they are “realigning resources to staff up in some units and in more areas around the country.”

“This will help us deliver on our goal of covering the United States more broadly,” he adds. “Many of the staff reductions in Newsgathering will be offset by the addition of new roles to best serve our audience across platforms.”

The overarching theme of Licht’s memo was CNN’s news “core.” HLN, with its crime shows and limited live programming, no longer made sense. CNN en Español is clearly in the midst of being transformed into a digital news outlet, while shifting contributor ranks to be smaller in size and more focused on subject matter experts is meant to bolster live news reporting, rather than punditry.

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