\n<\/p>\n
For months, CBS News staffers have been on edge waiting for a long-expected round of layoffs as part of the $2bn in cost-cutting that had been promised after parent company Paramount\u2019s successful merger with Skydance Media.<\/p>\n
Those cuts began on Wednesday morning and are expected to affect fewer than 100 people. The company declined to provide a specific number.<\/p>\n
One CBS News staffer described the cuts as a \u201cbloodbath\u201d, saying they were wide-reaching and affected a number of departments.<\/p>\n
As part of the cuts, the network has closed its Johannesburg bureau and is cancelling its CBS Mornings Plus and CBS Evening News Plus streaming shows. The network\u2019s Saturday-morning program will undergo a format change, according to a source with knowledge of the changes who was not authorized to comment. The network\u2019s race and culture unit was gutted.<\/p>\n
One concerned CBS News staffer who was not authorized to comment described the process as \u201cnerve-racking\u201d. \u201cSeems no one is safe,\u201d the person added.<\/p>\n
Overall, Paramount will lay off about 1,000 staffers on Wednesday, part of a longer-term plan that would double that number of cuts.<\/p>\n
David Ellison, the chief executive of Paramount Skydance, announced the cuts in a memo to all staff on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some areas, we are addressing redundancies that have emerged across the organization,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIn others, we are phasing out roles that are no longer aligned with our evolving priorities and the new structure designed to strengthen our focus on growth. Ultimately, these steps are necessary to position Paramount for long-term success.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cuts are expected to be one of the larger rounds of layoffs in recent memory at CBS News. The most recent round of significant layoffs came in May 2020, during the early months of the pandemic, when approximately 50 staffers were affected during the leadership of the then CBS News president, Susan Zirinsky.<\/p>\n
Puck\u2019s Dylan Byers first reported that \u201cnearly 100\u201d CBS News staffers would be cut on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The layoffs were planned before the appointment of Bari Weiss as the network\u2019s editor in chief, so it is unclear what role she might play in the process. Weiss briefly addressed the cuts at the top of the network\u2019s editorial meeting on Wednesday, saying it would be an \u201cenormously difficult day\u201d at the network.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just an enormously difficult day for so many people that have given years of their lives to this company, and I\u2019m sorry, and want to support everyone in whatever way I can,\u201d Weiss said, according to a recording of her remarks reviewed by the Guardian. Weiss further told staff that her \u201cdoor is open\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Monday, one of the network\u2019s longest-serving and most decorated journalists, John Dickerson, announced that he would be leaving at the end of the year, signaling a coming overhaul of the network\u2019s struggling CBS Evening News program. The network\u2019s head of standards, Claudia Milne, also recently departed the network.<\/p>\n
In his memo, Ellison thanked the employees who will be laid off.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are deeply grateful for your hard work, professionalism, and resilience during this period of transition,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe remain confident that Paramount\u2019s best days are ahead, and we\u2019re committed to building a strong foundation for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For months, CBS News staffers have been on edge waiting for a long-expected round of layoffs as part of the $2bn in cost-cutting that had been promised after parent company Paramount\u2019s successful merger with Skydance Media. Those cuts began on Wednesday morning and are expected to affect fewer than 100 people. The company declined to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[18302,4699,562,2622,1235,150,4849,3056,281,17776],"class_list":{"0":"post-31418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bloodbath","9":"tag-cbs","10":"tag-cuts","11":"tag-jobs","12":"tag-lose","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-paramount","15":"tag-part","16":"tag-staffers","17":"tag-sweeping"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}