As it moves towards its Jan. 1 rebrand as truTV, Court TV is cutting its online team in half and moving its trial coverage to sister Turner Broadcasting System network site CNN.com. The network is eliminating 16 of its 31 Web employees, as well as six jobs in operations and two in daytime.
CNN will carry Court TV's online trial coverage on a new CNN.com/crime site, swapped for what is now CNN.com/law. The new CNN site will be managed by the CNN.com team in Atlanta, rather than in Court TV's headquarters in New York.
When Court TV first announced plans for a rebrand in March, the network said it would move trial coverage to the Web during the afternoon as it began leading into the action-packed unscripted fare, with which it has seen steady ratings growth over the past 18 months.
“We will make truTV.com a popular destination, with an abundance of video content and materials exclusive to the Web,” said CourtTV/truTV general manager Marc Juris in an internal memo. “Our archive of stories from crime library.com will be available as well.”
