CNN to Anchors: 'Take It Or Leave It'

CNN’s Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer have been denied salary raises while Chris Wallace will likely be forced to take a pay cut — even as rank-and-file journalists at the network brace for “inevitable” layoffs, according to a report from the online industry newsletter The Ankler.

The Ny Post reports Mark Thompson — the former BBC and New York Times boss who was brought in to overhaul CNN by Warner Bros. Discovery overlord David Zaslav — has told some of his highest paid and most recognizable stars to “take it or leave it.” 

Thompson recently re-signed Tapper, CNN’s chief Washington correspondent who anchors “The Lead,” to a new three-year contract that will pay him the same $7 million annually that he had earned under the terms of his previous deal.

Blitzer, the 76-year-old longtime CNN veteran who anchors “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” has also been re-signed to a new three-year contract that will freeze his pay at roughly $3 million annually — the same sum of money he had been making before, the newsletter reported.

“Flat is the new up,” an agent who represents CNN talent told The Ankler when asked about the latest developments.

Another online newsletter, Puck, disputed The Ankler report, saying it “got almost all the salary figures wrong — in some cases egregiously” and that Tapper and Blitzer “make millions more than $7 million and $3 million, respectively.”

But the online newsletter conceded that “the broader point about talent being forced to renew at equal or lower comps is true.”

John Berman, the co-anchor of “News Central” alongside Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner, had his contract renewed at the same $1 million per year salary, The Ankler reported.

Meanwhile, speculation about Wallace’s future at the network is sure to ramp up given that the 77-year-old former Fox News personality was reportedly told that he will have to accept a salary that is significantly less than the $8.5 million that he is earning under his current deal, according to The Ankler.