CNN lays off hundreds of employees and replaces Jim Acosta as it restructures network

CNN announced on Thursday that it is eliminating about six percent of its workforce — mainly across the network’s traditional television operations — as it aims to expand and prioritize its digital and streaming services as cable viewers continue to cut the cord.

Roughly 200 employees will be laid off, though the network is looking to add roughly that same number of staffers to its digital side over the next year.

Additionally, the network is reshaping its weekday lineup, which will see Jim Acosta losing his 10 a.m. ET show and is in talks to move to a new role. Acosta’s program will be replaced by The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown, with Blitzer moving from his early-evening slot. Audie Cornish will also be getting her own morning show.

“Our objective is a simple one: to shift CNN’s gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting and, by doing that, to secure CNN’s future as one of the world’s greatest news organizations,” CNN chief Mark Thompson said in an internal memo.

In an interview with the New York Times, Thompson said that this “is a moment where the digital story feels like an existential question,” adding that if the network does “not follow the audiences to the new platforms with real conviction and scale, our future prospects will not be good.”

In his memo to staff on Thursday morning, while he acknowledged there would be significant short-term job losses across the network, Thompson said that he didn’t “expect total headcount to fall much this year, if at all.” That’s because of a recent $70 million investment corporate parent Warner Bros. Discovery made to help expand CNN’s digital plans, he said.

“Some of that money’s going in product and tech, but a lot is also going into new high-quality journalism and storytelling,” he wrote. “It’s what we stand for. It’s also the heart of every successful digital news strategy.”

The network plans on posting at least 100 new positions for digital roles within the first half of the year and is looking to actively recruit hundreds of more prospective employees in subsequent quarters.

This is a developing story and will be updated…