CNN Digital has been the focus of much resource allocation for the network, but a budget shortfall is making for tightened expenses and limited travel for its employees. A CNN spokesman says the division will pull in $370 million in revenue for 2017, but the highly-competitive and difficult-to-monetize digital news market has made for navigating rough shoals, woes not felt by its ratings-surging TV business.
Between Wednesday’s release of a new mobile app and last week’s poaching of BuzzFeed’s top political news talent, CNN seems to be “future-proofing” itself. The legacy media organization announced a $20 million investment in March, and has since hired 162 members to the digital team. CNN expects to bring that number to 274 by the first quarter of 2017.
Marcus Mabry has been hired as director at CNN Digital, while Christina Cuesta has been tapped as its senior editor for mobile. Mabry is a veteran of Twitter and The New York Times, while Cuesta comes from The Wall Street Journal.
