CNBC International is to cut live TV news it produces out of London by a third and close its Paris and Tokyo bureaus, as part of drive to increase investment in digital operation.
The business and financial news organisation, which has launched a staff consultation that will see about 5% of its international workforce put at risk of redundancy, is to reduce its London-based live TV news from six to four hours a day.
The focus is understood to remain on morning live television which means that flagship show Squawkbox Europe will be unaffected by the cut in daily hours.
Programming from CNBC studios in the US will be used to fill the two hours taken out of London slot. .
CNBC will also close its Paris bureau – French coverage will be served by new roles to be based at its regional HQ in London, and its Tokyo bureau will also shut.
Japan, the only location to be affected by the cuts outside Europe, will be covered from CNBC’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore and through the continuation of CNBC’s channel partnership with Nikkei, the new owner of the Financial Times
The saving from cuts will be invested in boosting its digital journalism output in line with changing viewer habits. This will see the expansion of CNBC’s morning Live Blog which will be expanded to run throughout the working day.
New digital roles in news will be created to bolster the Live Blog output.
“Implementing these proposals will make CNBC International a more agile, multi-platform news organisation without impacting the quality of our first-rate financial journalism,” said a spokeswoman for CNBC International.
A staff consultation will see around 15 employees leave by the end of the year, out of CNBC International’s total workforce of about 300.
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