After announcing 100 job cuts, CNN continues recruiting in Hollywood

Conference goers at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’s annual convention work outside CNN’s career expo booth in Hollywood, Calif. KATHLEEN ORTIZ/LATINO REPORTER

A mere few hours after CNN announced it will be cutting 100 jobs on Wednesday, members of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists celebrated the first day of their annual conference at a lavish cocktail party hosted by the media company. CNN’s “Cocktails and Connections” event took members to Warner Bros. Studio. While there, many of them heard about the layoffs for the first time from their peers.

NAHJ has yet to make a public statement on the layoffs, and information from CNN has been limited. It remains unclear what departments may be affected by the staff cuts. Recruiters and editors from CNN who attended the national conference this week declined to comment pending the release of an official statement from the company.

“Our relationship with CNN has always been robust,” NAHJ president Yvette Cabrera said Thursday. “I have to reserve comment on this most recent [round of layoffs] until I learn more, but I would say we are always in dialogue.”

CNN’s presence has loomed large at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, where NAHJ has been commemorating its 40th anniversary. No changes to CNN’s conference sessions or programming have been announced. Cabrera said NAHJ is prepared to offer free memberships to individuals who may lose their jobs in the cuts — something the nonprofit has done in the past.

“We understand how challenging it is right now to land a job,” Cabrera said. “What we’ll be doing is outreach to those journalists to try to provide them with as much support.”

News of the job eliminations did not slow traffic to CNN’s booth at the career fair, where tables teemed with young journalists looking for work and the network’s bright red logo could be seen from nearly every corner of the ballroom.

“There’s always going to be people that are generally apprehensive after a large company announces layoffs, but I haven’t seen it affect anything,” said Julio-César Chavez, NAHJ’s national vice president of broadcast. “People seem to be enjoying the CNN events.”

One journalist fresh out of college, Anthony Bautista, a former participant in the NAHJ Student Project, which produces the Latino Reporter, said he isn’t allowing the turbulent job market to discourage him this week.

Bautista spent time listening to CNN recruiters give a presentation at their booth on Thursday. As they spoke, he listened intently.

“It’s hard to get a job as it is, especially as somebody that just graduated,” Bautista said. “I can’t let it stop me, you know what I mean? It doesn’t hurt to give it a try.”

Kathleen Ortiz is a junior at Rice University studying both Social Policy Analysis and Sport Management with a concentration in Sport Law. Ortiz serves as the sports editor for Rice’s paper The Rice Thresher and works as a law intern at Rusty Hardin & Associates in Houston, Texas. Reach her via email (kathleenortiz13@gmail.com) or LinkedIn @Kathleen Ortiz

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