Anderson Cooper collects $18 million-a-year from CNN, according to a new report.

The longtime anchor’s salary is roughly five times that of Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins, sources told Puck.

Jake Tapper, 56, remains locked in a ‘low-eight-figure multiyear deal’, the report revealed. He is set to stay on the air as a result, Puck reported without offering a timeline.

CNN’s parent, Warner Bros Discovery, announced plans to split into two separate companies this week, leaving the network to lead a new debt-ridden firm centered around linear TV.

The cable channel’s seven and eight-figure signings are therefore set to be a thing of a past, said Puck’s Dylan Byers, who previously worked at CNN.

‘[Tapper] is surely the last CNN talent who will ever come close to netting that kind of income,’ the former NBC News media reporter added.  

Cooper, 58, is a mainstay, but his salary seems hard to justify, Byers reported, at a time where CNN’s ratings are at an all-time low. That holds especially true when comparing it with Collin’s.

Sure to catch on to this is Gunnar Wiedenfels, the former WBD CFO and the new boss of the CNN-led company, whom Byers insisted will see CNN as an opportunity to ‘maintain relatively similar profits at a mere fraction of the cost.’

Anderson Cooper, 58, collects $18 million-a-year from CNN, according to a new report from Puck’s Dylan Byers published Wednesday 

The longtime anchor’s salary is roughly five times that of 33-year-old Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins, sources said

‘This is the beginning of the end,’ Byers wrote of the network.

‘With the industry in inexorable decline, ratings at a nadir, and younger audiences turning to YouTube and TikTok, [Wiedenfels] will inevitably look at CNN.’

After Monday’s WBD announcement frantic employees at CNN reached out to Byers to wonder about their fate.

‘What does this mean for us?’ asked one.

‘Thoughts?!’ a ‘high-ranking’ CNN insider asked in regard to CEO David Zaslav’s plans to divide up the conglomerate.

The decision came weeks after CNBC reported that WBD was mulling a separation of its linear networks from its studio and streaming assets, much like Comcast has done with MSNBC and CNBC.

The move appeared to double-down on the company’s recently re-rebranded HBO Max streaming service, while leaving CNN in the lurch.

Joining it in its new digs are declining channels like TBS, Food Network, HGTV, and a now NBA-less TNT.

Jake Tapper, meanwhile, remains locked in a ‘low-eight-figure multiyear deal’, the report revealed, adding that the anchor ,seen here sporting a copy of his new book, is set to stay on-air for the foreseeable future as a result

Gunnar Wiedenfels, the new boss of the CNN-led company, will soon see CNN as an opportunity to ‘maintain relatively similar profits at a mere fraction of the cost’, Puck reported

The salary revelations come as CEO David Zaslav has aired plans to divvy up the conglomerate, leaving CNN to lead a company comprised of declining cable channels

However, the asset that has seemingly suffered the most during Zaslav’s three-year-stint at the top is none other than CNN, which has beet hit with several rounds of layoffs within that span. 

He and Wiedenfels have managed to reduce Warner Bros Discovery’s $55billion debt by some $21 billion in that same timeframe.

For his efforts, Zaslav took home around $52 million last year, compensation shareholders last week symbolically voted to pull back in a clear show of frustration.

Zaslav and Wiedenfels’ cost-cutting campaign has done little to help the conglomerate’s share price, which is down 7 percent year to date.

Zaslav’s pay package, meanwhile, was roughly 400 times the median pay of Warner Bros Discovery staffer which stands at $130,316.

Less than five months ago, CNN  laid off 200 workers from its struggling TV division that an insider told Daily Mail has become ‘bloated’ following Warner Bros’ merger with Discovery in 2021.

Four years later, the same firm is set to split,  showing the challenges media conglomerates are facing as they look to adjust costly legacy assets to fit in an evolving media landscape.   

CNN CEO Mark Thompson’s long-in-the works restructuring plan for the WBD asset sets to address this by putting emphasis on CNN’s digital future rather than the cable news channel.

Cable top dog Fox runs on a relatively inexpensive model compared to CNN – fueled by studio programs. CNN has several foreign bureaus and spends large amounts on newsgathering 

This vision, for now, remains unrealized, and in a statement issued in January after administering the network’s most recent round of layoffs, Thompson warned that future was unclear.

‘This is a moment where the digital story feels like an existential question,’ he said, emphasizing that that CNN is set to soon roll out a streaming service – one he said will feature its most well-known stars.  

‘If we do not follow the audiences to the new platforms with real conviction and scale, our future prospects will not be good,’ he urged.   

Under his two-year tenure, CNN’s ratings have dropped more than 20 percent – now behind even MSNBC.    

The network, for years, was the top dog in terms of cable news. That distinction is now held by Fox.

Byers noted that in contrast to CNN, Fox runs on a relatively inexpensive model fueled by studio programs. 

CNN, which has several foreign bureaus and employs costly correspondents spends large amounts on newsgathering alone.

Daily Mail has reached out to CNN for comment. WBD’s split is set to occur by mid-2026, the company said in a statement.