CNN Closes World News Headquarters

CNN is saying goodbye to its original headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, following the network’s final broadcast Friday.

The network departs its ‘World News Headquarters’ after more than 35 years.

“CNN is leaving its downtown mainstay in stages this year, with the entire operation moving back to renovated space at the 30-acre Turner Techwood campus in Midtown,” The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

“CNN’s new owner, Warner Bros. Discovery, is now prepping smaller space at its Midtown Techwood property, which Ted Turner purchased in 1979 to start CNN,” the outlet added.

Anchor Kate Bolduan made the announcement Friday.

“Before we go today, we are marking an important moment today in CNN’s history. Today’s show will be the final broadcast from the CNN Center in Atlanta,” said Bolduan.

“We anchor the show out of New York, but the control rooms of this show and much of our editorial staff has always been in Atlanta at that iconic building at the CNN Center, also known as CNN’s World News Headquarters,” she continued.

“Starting Monday, our team there will move to a new home just a couple of miles away. But it’s actually the new home is actually the place where CNN founder Ted Turner started the network back in 1980,” she added.

WATCH:

END OF AN ERA: CNN's @KateBolduan reveals @NewsCentralCNN will be the final show produced from the CNN Center in Atlanta as staff will be moving to a new building.

Almost none of CNN's shows are actually anchored/hosted there anymore, but large parts of the staff have stayed. pic.twitter.com/MT0BJajdGb

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 27, 2023

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

Techwood houses departments for other cable networks including TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network and truTV as well as sports programming.

CNN has already moved its master control operations to the new location, AdWeek reported this week. CNN has significant CNN International and digital operations in Atlanta, but all weekday anchors are now located in New York or Washington, D.C. A few CNN weekend shows remain in Atlanta.

This move means the oversized CNN logo on the sidewalk off Centennial Olympic Park Drive, a major spot for tourists to take pictures, will be dismantled, and the CNN sign affixed to the building for decades will be taken down.

“I am heartbroken,” said Tom Johnson, CNN president from 1990 to 2001. “So many of my friends tell me how they’re going to miss that wonderful CNN logo on top of CNN Center. It just meant so much to us.”

CNN closes their Atlanta headquarters https://t.co/sn5MdX8le1

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 27, 2023

Daily Caller added:

Bolduan played a clip from the first broadcast from the CNN Center that showed the first episode of “Daybreak,” featuring former hosts Donna Kelley and Brian Nelson. Following the throwback, the anchor showed footage of employees waving goodbye from CNN’s two Atlanta control rooms.

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AT&T, CNN’s former parent company, sought to save money by selling the CNN Center to Florida-based real estate firms CP Group and Rialto Capital Management, according to the outlet. Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s new parent company, prepared the Midtown Techwood property for Atlanta staff.