CNN will cut approximately 100 jobs, which is about 3 percent of its workforce, as the television network consolidates its newsrooms and pursues ambitious plans to build a multi-billion dollar digital business.

The heading could be translated to English as follows:

"In a memo to employees on Wednesday, CEO Sir Mark Thompson announced that CNN will launch a digital subscription service by the end of 2024, citing the 'pioneering spirit' of CNN founder Ted Turner, who paved the way for America's cable news industry in the 1980s.

Thompson, the former Director-General of the BBC, who was appointed CEO last year to revitalize the struggling cable network, said he wanted to create "an integrated and significantly streamlined multimedia news operation [and] a bold new digital strategy.

He merges CNN's US, international, and digital newsrooms. Further plans include showing more CNN content on Max, the streaming service of parent company Warner Brothers Discovery, and launching a "strategic initiative" to utilize artificial intelligence.

Thompson, who successfully oversaw a digital transformation in his previous job at The New York Times, was brought to CNN to secure the future of the traditional media group. The network has fallen behind its competitors in recent years and is struggling with declining viewership as more Americans cancel their traditional TV subscriptions.

Thompson's mission is to create a digital platform to reach the audience that consumes news online, as well as to stop the decline of CNN's traditional cable news business.

CNN has signed its first 'multimillion-dollar licensing deal' to leverage the value of its 44-year video archive, he added.

Thompson also told employees, however, that "about a hundred of over 3,500 workers" would lose their jobs, while at the same time new roles would be created in the new structure.

Thompson is one of several media executives in the U.S. overseeing a strategic restructuring of their newsrooms, with British leaders Sir Will Lewis and Emma Tucker driving similar changes at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

Traditional media groups face the challenge of reaching new target audiences through digital channels like TikTok and YouTube, while simultaneously protecting their established business areas and existing customers.

In 2022, CNN launched a digital subscription service called CNN+, but it was discontinued after just one month as the new owners, Warner Brothers Discovery, focused on their streaming service Max. Thompson told the Financial Times in April that it was "a big bold experiment that was quite quickly abandoned.

In the memo to the staff, Thompson stated that the new subscription service should "help our audience and our customers lead better lives by creating a growing range of 'must-have' paid offerings based on lifestyle journalism, where CNN is uniquely positioned to win.