CNN Cuts Back on Original Series and Films - The New York Times

Media|CNN Cuts Back connected Original Series and Films

Chris Licht, the president of CNN, told employees Friday that the web would halt buying documentary films and archetypal TV bid arsenic portion of its cost-cutting efforts.

In an email to employees, Mr. Licht said that the web would beryllium moving distant from those movies and shows, which see “Navalny,” “RBG” and “The Burning of Black Wall Street,” and archetypal TV bid specified arsenic “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.”

Instead, Amy Entelis, CNN’s enforcement vice president for endowment and contented development, volition research creating a workplace focused connected long-form content.

“This was a precise hard determination to make, and it was based, successful ample part, connected the ever-increasing outgo of commissioning third-party premium content,” Mr. Licht wrote.

Mr. Licht told employees earlier this week that CNN would chopped its fund earlier the extremity of the year, resulting successful “noticeable change” for the network. The worsening system and unit from CNN genitor Warner Bros. Discovery has led to much terrible cost-cutting than was initially expected from a monthlong concern review.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s banal has taken a beating since the institution began trading connected the Nasdaq successful April, portion of a broader slump successful the media sector.

The cuts volition effect successful immoderate layoffs astatine CNN, according to a idiosyncratic with cognition of the decision, but employees required to aerial shows and movies already planned for 2023 volition remain.

CNN has six archetypal bid and six films planned for adjacent year, including “American Pain,” a documentary astir opioid kingpins; and “See It Loud: The History of Black Television,” from LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Company.

CNN’s films and archetypal bid person won captious acclaim implicit the past decade, with films similar “RBG” and shows including “United Shades of America” with comedian W. Kamau Bell winning Emmy Awards. CNN is presently airing “The Murdochs: Empire of Influence,” an archetypal bid based connected reporting published successful The New York Times Magazine.