Two of the most familiar faces, Bruce Morton and Garrick Utley, decided against remaining with the network, CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson said Monday.
The contracts of the other five were not renewed at the end of 2002, Robinson said. They are Brooks Jackson, Allan Dodds Frank, Mark Potter, Bruce Francis and James Hattori.
There also was uncertainty about the future of business anchor Willow Bay after CNN canceled her two weekend programs, ``Pinnacle'' and ``Business Unusual.''
Bay previously was co-anchor of the CNN business show ``Moneyline.''
``We're in discussions with her on a new role,'' Robinson said. She added that Bay wants to remain in Los Angeles, where her husband, Robert Iger, is president of The Walt Disney Co.
The departures do not represent cutbacks, Robinson said, noting that CNN is bringing aboard at least four new correspondents including Whitney Casey and Jamie Colby in New York, Mike Brooks in Atlanta and Dana Bash at the White House.
``We're always strengthening our team of correspondents,'' Robinson said, adding that the departures represented a small percentage of CNN's roughly 300 correspondents and anchors.
CNN found itself in the uncharacteristic No. 2 spot when it fell behind Fox in the ratings last year. For 2002, Fox averaged 1.2 million viewers in primetime while CNN averaged 898,000.
For the full programming day, Fox averaged 667,000 viewers compared to 536,000 viewers for CNN.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/1/185890