While media companies will say the ratings are the most important, the truth is, money is the most important.

More often than not, they go hand in hand.

CNN has been bleeding viewers for quite some time and it is now showing up in the bottom line.

The NY Times is out with a story that claims that CNN’s profitability is on pace to decline to $956.8 million this year. That would mark the first time since 2016 that the network has dipped below $1 billion in profit, according to three people familiar with its operations.

CNN is said to be missing revenue targets by as much as $100 million dollars.

Of course, CNN lost their shirt in the launch and then spectacular failure of CNN+ which didn’t even make it a month.

Despite the shortfall, CNN boss Chris Licht does not expect to be laying off staff.

The Times says that Licht told employees at the town hall meeting in May that he didn’t expect Warner Bros. Discovery to impose additional layoffs at CNN after the shutdown of CNN+.

“No one has said to me, ‘You’re going to have to go cut this,’” Mr. Licht said, according to the recording. “I think there’s an acute understanding that they don’t know our business.”

But, as CNN continues to bleed viewers a time will come when difficult decisions will be made on staff.

Licht says he is committed to bringing CNN back from the far left to the middle as it once was before Jeff Zucker took over.

The question is, will viewers return, or is the CNN brand so tarnished that it might not recover?

Stay tuned…