CNN cracks down on outrageous employee perk as pampered staff face salary cuts

CNN is set to unleash a flurry of cost-cutting measures while enforcing new rules to curb staffers' lavish spending.
Starting July 1, employees will need to submit receipts with their expense reports for things like travel and source meetings, Status reported.
The edict comes as beleaguered staff continue to reel from last week's news that the network will be cast off to an entirely different company with the rest of Warner Bros. Discovery's declining cable assets.
Employees are also set to face salary cuts amid rumors of a possible sale of CNN.
More than half a dozen staff members told Status that anxiety is rife at the network.
The incoming CEO of the soon-to-be spin-off, Gunnar Wiedenfels, is fueling the unease.
Anchors raking in seven- and eight figures have targets on their back thanks to competition matching and surpassing ratings at a fraction of the cost, Status reported.
Correspondents who collect hundreds of thousands of dollars annually are also set to see their salaries trimmed. Status pointed out how many go days - and sometimes weeks - without appearing on air. Many are not being required to file digital stories.
Foreign bureaus that cost a great deal to maintain could also be cut.
Staff who survived the cuts imposed by Warner Bros' Discovery CEO David Zaslav predicted even more bitter times ahead.
Staffers reacted nervously to being relegated to what's being billed as the 'Sh*t Co.' wing of WBD, a television giant once known for its perks.
'Everyone is wary and tired and there is so much change that we don't understand what direction the company is going in,' one 'prominent network journalist' told Status.
The 'rank and file are nervous like the pre-cuts time' and have 'no confidence and no trust' in leadership, added another.
'There are people who think CNN won't exist at some point, ' a third admitted.
'Hard to believe that will happen, but there are people who feel that way.'
Their unease comes as WBD CFO Wiedenfels, 47, sent out a staff memo with the subject line 'Excitement for the Future,' in which he talked up CNN and pledged his 'full support' to the network, Status reported.
Wiedenfels also vowed CNN would 'continue to operate with full editorial independence. '
Last week, WBD revealed that the new spin-off, Global Networks, would be led by Wiedenfels.
He and Zaslav have invested $100 million in CNN's future as a streaming product, including the re-hiring of several of the original executives laid off from CNN+, its first failed streaming venture.
In his memo to staffers, Wiedenfels said those investments remain 'a critical priority.'
Wiedenfels and Zaslav have managed to strip some $21 billion of the entertainment company's once $55 billion debt after years of outsized spending.
The media giant recently disclosed that nearly 60 percent of its shareholders voted to reject the pay packages for Zaslav and Wiedenfels, and after Zaslav saw his compensation swell by nearly five percent from 2023 to 2024.
Shareholders were reportedly not satisfied with the conglomerate's share price, which was down 7 percent year to date at the time.
As of Friday morning, shares were 1 percent higher than they were a year ago, after a noticeable surge since the split announcement.
The announcement revealed Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO, and Max will stay with WBD and are expected to fuel growth.
CNN, HGTV, TBS, TNT, the Food Network and other struggling cable channels will go to the new company.
Meanwhile, CNN mainstays like Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper

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