CNN’s Stars Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer Get Massive Salaries Frozen as Bosses Sharpen Ax

CNN journalists, including some of the greatest personalities in the network, live in the fear of “inevitable” layoffs and salary reductions while his new CEO seeks to consolidate finances in the middle of the downward ratings.
It is according to The ankleWho reported on Wednesday that Chris Wallace, 77, had already been relegated to a weekend program – is among the best known names on the network whose future is in limbo.
The $ 8.5 million contract in Wallace, signed by the former CNN boss, Jeff Zucker, recruits him from Fox News three years ago, would be in place and was spotted in the office of the CEO Mark Thompson on Tuesday.

The future of Chris Wallace in CNN would be in limbo. The 77 -year -old man joined CNN in January 2022 after 18 years in Fox News.
Reuters / Mike Blake
Sources told The ankle This “apartment is the new one” at CNN, with Thompson – which was hired at the end of last summer – taken care of to revise the network by adding journalist responsibilities, denying the increases, in the position of positions and even by moving certain New York operations to Atlanta well.
“If you do not receive a offer for several months, you are in a precarious place,” said a member of CNN staff The ankle contractual negotiations. “This anxiety sank down and outside and through the place.” The ankle reported that more than 15 CNN initiates echoed this feeling.
Sources added to The ankle The fact that the dozens of national network correspondents – have been put to do in the six -digit of the middle at high – are especially at risk of ensuring that their wages or its whole position is homogeneous. The CNN website lists 92 people as “journalists and correspondents” on the antenna.
“Mark said he does not like the conventional style of television plans we make,” said a staff member at Newsletter. “”He wants daring people. He does not want people who look like your traditional anachorman, and it turns out to [edgy] People are cheaper.
Nielsen’s data show that last month CNN attracted 853,000 viewers in total – a third less than the competitor Fox News, which had 2.5 million, and much less than the MSNBC left network, which attracted 1.4 million viewers.
In addition to fewer viewers, there would also be afflicted CNN’s net profit between its digital operation and programming on the antenna, which were previously treated as “two different worlds” but are getting closer to the becoming one.
“The place should be upset,” a staff told Antler. “It doesn’t work because nobody looks at. He needs a radical overhaul. “
This means that the management cuts can be significant, the sources have been told The ankleAnd that air correspondents can quickly be loaded with the tasks that are not required. This would include journalists invited to write their own scripts, make their own production, shoot images vertically for Tiktok videos and write their own digital articles.
Another area that could be hit hard is CNN’s robust political team in their Washington office. The ankle have reported that Thompson thinks that CNN “is too indexed to politics” and needs more travel and entertainment news.
Other cost reduction measures include the refusal of the increases in contractual negotiations, regardless of the size of the name.
Jake Tapper, 55, has concluded a new three -year agreement with Thompson this year, but could not mark an increase in remuneration for the $ 7 million he won each year. The same goes for Wolf Blitzer, 76, who had renewed his contract at his former salary of $ 3 million per year.
“Mark clearly said that the cable car is important for income for the coming years,” said a CNN veteran, “but this is not the thing that will save us in the long term.”