CNN begins layoffs tied to Warner Bros. Discovery restructuring

Yahoo Finance entertainment reporter Allie Canal discusses CNN's layoffs that are expected to impact hundreds of employees.

Video transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: CNN starting a new round of layoffs just months after shuttering its CNN+ streaming service. Yahoo Finance's Allie Canal joins us now with more on this latest shakeup in the news industry. Tough times there over at CNN. What are we learning?

ALLIE CANAL: Very tough times. Layoffs scheduled for both today and tomorrow. And according to an internal memo obtained by Yahoo Finance, CNN CEO Chris Licht wrote, in part, quote, "Our people are the heart and soul of this organization. It is incredibly hard to say goodbye to any one member of the CNN team, much less many. I recently described this process as a gut punch because I know that is how it feels for all of us."

Now, of course, this is all part of Warner Brothers Discovery's larger restructuring efforts. The company recently laid off around 70 staffers working in sports across brands like Turner Sports, Bleacher Report. We also saw earlier this summer that the company laid off 14% of its HBO Max workforce. And so far to date, more than 1,000 jobs have been cut. So likely more pain that's on the way.

Now CEO David Zaslav, he's been very aggressive when it comes to figuring out this business since its merger in April. But investors, they haven't been too kind to the stock. Since that time, the stock is down more than 50%. Zaslav saying it's been very tough, very difficult to overcome a lot of these messy merger challenges.

But it's really beyond that as well-- a lot of the macroeconomic environment, this pullback in advertising. We just saw yesterday that AMC Networks plans to cut 20% of its workforce as, again, the industry is just struggling with this ultra competitive streaming environment and also these cable losses. So CNN, Warner Brothers Discovery just another part of that story.

SEANA SMITH: It will be an interesting story as we continue to follow it with what we expect, more cuts ahead.