Turner Broadcasting System Inc. assets
CNN: Includes domestic cable channel, CNN.com and CNN International.
HLN: Used to be Headline News, now focused more on social media and the millennial generation.
TBS: Sixth in prime time in the second quarter with shows such as "The Big Bang Theory, " "Sullivan & Son" and "Conan."
TNT: Top-rated basic cable network in total viewers in prime time in the second quarter with shows such as "Major Crimes, " "Rizzoli & Isles" and "The Last Ship."
Adult Swim: No. 1 basic cable network for adults 18 to 34 and 18 to 49 in the second quarter with shows such as "Robot Chicken" and "Superjail."
Cartoon Network: No. 1 among boys ages 9 to 14 in the second quarter with shows such as "Teen Titans Go!" and "Regular Show."
Boomerang: A spinoff of Cartoon Network, focused on classic cartoons.
TruTV: Targets young males with shows such as "Impractical Jokers" and "Carbonaro Effect."
NBA TV: Owned by the NBA but operated by Turner.
TCM: Turner Classic Movies remains commercial free and focused on classic films.
Turner International: Operates 160-plus channels in more than 200 countries, with 30-plus brands, in close to 40 languages.
Time Warner at a glance
* $7.5 billion in revenue, operating profit of $1.5 billion, in the first quarter of 2014. Turner revenue during the quarter: $2.6 billion.
* Turner has 150 channels broadcasting in 36 languages in 200 countries.
* HBO has 127 million subscribers.
* Warner Bros. films grossed $3 billion-plus at the box office.
A timeline of the Turner media empire
1970: Ted Turner buys Atlanta's Channel 17, a struggling UHF station.
1976: Turner transmits nationally via satellite to cable systems.
1979: Turner renames the business Turner Broadcasting System.
1980: Turner launches Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable new channel.
1985: CNN International launches. CNN turns first profit.
1986: CNN is only channel showing live coverage of space shuttle Challenger when it explodes in flight.
1986: CNN moves downtown from original Midtown HQ.
1986: Turner buys legacy film properties such as early Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library, Gilligan's Island, Bugs Bunny and others. Turner Entertainment starts.
1988: TNT is launched with an airing of "Gone With the Wind."
1991: CNN is the network to watch as Persian Gulf War begins.
1992: Turner starts Cartoon Network.
1995: CNN.com launches.
1996: Turner Broadcasting sold to Time Warner. Fox News Channel launches.
2002: Fox News surpasses CNN in ratings.
2005: TNT launches "The Closer, " breaking records for most viewers for a basic cable show.
2006: The company sells Turner South to Fox Cable Networks, creating Fox Sports South.
2006: Ted Turner resigns from Time Warner board.
2008: Court TV becomes truTV and veers away from court programming in favor of reality shows.
2010: TBS launches "Conan" hosted by former "Tonight Show' host Conan O'Brien.
2013: Atlanta-based CEO Phil Kent turns leadership over to New York-based John Martin. Jeff Zucker takes over CNN, begins pushing more reality programming such as "Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown."
2014: Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox offers to buy Time Warner, which rejects the deal. Turner announces buyouts and reorganization.
Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System, one of the area’s most prominent employers and the parent to cable giants CNN and TNT, said Monday it will eliminate 1,475 jobs worldwide in a restructuring that will be particularly hard on its hometown.
Turner will cut about 10 percent of its global workforce through layoffs, buyouts and other moves. Jobs will be erased in 18 locations across all divisions, including news, sports, children’s entertainment and the main corporate offices.
Atlanta is taking the brunt of the cuts: 975 jobs. It ranks among the largest corporate layoffs in metro Atlanta in recent years.
Rapid change in the television industry is driving the cuts, but so is the specter of archrival Rupert Murdoch and 21st Century Fox. Time Warner, the parent company of Turner, rejected a buyout offer from Fox earlier this year, putting added pressure on Time Warner to boost its financial performance.
In June, Turner unveiled Turner 2020, a plan to cut costs, boost revenue through new original content and other avenues. In Monday’s announcement, Turner said it will add 150 jobs “in areas of investment and growth.”
“It’s our responsibility as business leaders to focus Turner’s talent pool where individuals and groups will deliver the greatest return for the company, for Time Warner and for our shareholders,” Chief Executive Officer John Martin said in a memo to employees obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Earlier this year, the company announced plans to offer buyouts to about 600. That figure is included in the job cut total.
The company said fewer than 300 of the job cuts will be at CNN Worldwide. A Turner spokeswoman said no Atlanta properties will be vacated.
Employees whose positions are affected will be informed over the next two weeks and will be offered severance pay, the company said.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed sounded an optimistic note, saying Turner Broadcasting has served as the leading news and entertainment company in the city and state.
“Despite Turner’s decision to reduce staff globally, including operations in Atlanta, we are confident that its leadership team will work to preserve as many (as) 5,500 full-time positions located in the city where TBS was founded,” Reed said in a statement Monday evening.
Time Warner rebuffed 21st Century Fox’s offer to buy the company for $85 per share, saying it can create more value for investors by staying independent. But some experts think Murdoch or another hostile party could return. Time Warner shares ended trading Monday at $73.82, down from a high of $88.13 during the merger speculation wave of this summer.
Turner, which makes up about 40 percent of Time Warner’s revenue, remains profitable. But ratings have sagged at some of its networks, costs to license and air sports games have risen sharply, and the company faces concerns that some operations grew bloated over the years.
The TV industry is wrestling with how to increase profits as viewers become more demanding and turn online for entertainment. Netflix and other streaming options threaten the traditional basic cable revenue model.
Though Turner has had success with some original programs, they’ve lacked the water-cooler buzz of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” or Netflix’s “House of Cards.” And CNN, though profitable, is still trying to figure out how to unseat perennial rival, No. 1 cable news outlet Fox News.
David Folkenflik, media correspondent for National Public Radio, believes the cuts are a way to boost share prices and thwart another potential takeover attempt by Murdoch.
“I think this is the bitter medicine that (Time Warner CEO) Jeff Bewkes has become convinced is necessary in order for Time Warner to ward off a deeply unwanted acquisition offer by Rupert Murdoch,” said Folkenflik, author of “Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires.”
Turner traces its roots to when billionaire Ted Turner acquired Atlanta’s struggling Channel 17 in the early 1970s, and built an empire starting in the 1980s on the 24-hour Cable News Network and cable channels TNT and TBS. CNN’s coverage of the Persian Gulf War put Atlanta on the world’s media stage. Turner sold his namesake company in 1996.
Turner Broadcasting has more than 14,000 employees worldwide. Before the cuts, about 6,500 were in Atlanta, though the city once boasted more than half of Turner’s workforce.
But through the years, jobs have leaked out of Atlanta to New York, notably at CNN.
Martin addressed Atlanta’s status within Turner in his memo.
“Atlanta remains the company’s largest employee base, with more than 5,500 full-time employees even after this force reduction,” Martin said. “That positions Turner among the top 25 Metro Atlanta employers on a headcount basis. Beyond people and infrastructure, our history and heritage are there. So is a big part of our future.”
Folkenflik said the founder’s absence within the company is significant.
“I think there is something interesting about having a major news organization not based in New York and Washington, and I think you’re seeing that erode at CNN,” Folkenflik said. “There is less of a sense of Atlanta, and that’s really about Ted Turner’s absence more than anything else.”
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