Entertainment

CNN Veterans Take Buyouts as Skydance Reshapes Warner Bros. Discovery

Putri ArdhanaPublished 2m ago2 min readBased on 11 sources
CNN Veterans Take Buyouts as Skydance Reshapes Warner Bros. Discovery
Image by thekurupi from Pixabay

Several long-serving CNN staff, including camera operators and fact-checkers, have accepted voluntary buyouts, meaning payments offered to employees who agree to leave. Variety reported the move on Monday, 9 November. The offers follow Skydance's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, the company that owns CNN.

The buyouts were open to staff in vice president roles or below who had more than 15 years of service. Employees had until Sunday, 8 November to accept. CNN staff had not received a similar offer in about seven years.

Skydance, which is controlled by the Paramount company, closed its $81 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery in early October, according to AP and PBS. The deal had taken roughly a year to complete. MediaPost reported that Skydance offered buyouts across the company as it sought to streamline its operations.

Staff have been under pressure in other ways too. When the buyouts were offered, Skydance required workers to return to the office five days a week, NBC Los Angeles reported on 26 October.

The money behind the cuts is large. Skydance has $80 billion in debt, and it has pledged to find $6 billion in operational savings over three years, according to Variety. The company is also set to report its first quarterly earnings since the merger, which will give the first public look at its finances as the new owner.

The changes reach beyond CNN. CBS News staff are considering buyout offers of their own, with acceptance deadlines staggered across the team. A Los Angeles County report issued in August estimated that the merger could cost some 4,500 film and TV jobs across the industry.

Neither Skydance nor CNN made executives available to comment on the buyouts.

For the people involved, the decision is personal. A buyout offers a payout and an exit, but it also means leaving a newsroom where many of them have spent most of their careers. Those who stay will be working under a new owner, with new office rules and a new set of savings targets to meet.

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