CBS News will lay off about 6% of staffers, according to a person familiar with the matter, in the latest round of cost cutting under new management at Paramount Skydance.
The staff reductions come after Bari Weiss, editor in chief of CBS News, articulated a plan to make CBS News more relevant to younger, digitally savvy generations, which may entail recalibrating the traditional deference given to the bread and butter operations of the business — linear TV programming.
Employees were informed of the move Friday in a memo from Weiss and CBS News President Tom Cibrowski.
“It’s no secret that the news business is changing radically, and that we need to change along with it. New audiences are burgeoning in new places, and we are pressing forward with ambitious plans to grow and invest so that we can be there for them. That means some parts of our newsroom must get smaller to make room for the things we must build to remain competitive,” the executives said in a statement. “But these are very hard choices and today is a difficult day.”
It was not immediately clear what areas of the business and what shows were affected.
The cuts are smaller than previously anticipated. In February, word emerged that the news division might eliminate as much as 15% of the staff. Discussions around layoffs and staff reductions were said at the time to be fluid, and a timeline for putting them into place — if that decision is final — was seen as early as March and as late as May.
More to come…
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