CNBC is cutting some newsroom jobs in a reorganization meant to unify its digital and TV news operations.
Fewer than a dozen roles were impacted, with plans to ultimately hire more people to expand its TV and digital business. In other words, the changes are about structure, and not cost savings.
”The changes made today are to align CNBC’s newsroom structure for the future, they are not driven by cost cutting,” a CNBC spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter. “We expect to hire more than 40 new editorial roles over the next year across TV, Digital and direct-to-consumer platforms.”
Reuters, which first reported the news, says that the cut come as CNBC plans to launch a paywall. CNBC’s editorial operations are now being led by David Cho, who joined the company last year after serving as editor-in-chief of Barron’s and business editor of The Washington Post.
The cuts at CNBC come as its parent company Versant prepares to deliver its first ever earnings report next week, following its spinoff from NBCUniversal last month. Versant shares have fallen double digits since it debuted last month, though it has been rebounding over the past week. Now that the company is spun out from Comcast, the moves it makes will garner more intense scrutiny from investors.