CBS News is expected to endure a fresh round of pain this spring as management reportedly considers laying off at least 15% of staff.
The extent of the cuts, according to reports in Status and Variety, remains unclear, as well as their timing. They could come as early as March, Variety reported, or as late as May, and the plans remain fluid as the network deliberates on the breadth of the layoffs.
CBS News declined to comment.
The cuts would be the second round of layoffs since David Ellison’s Skydance merged with Paramount last year and let roughly 100 people go in October. They would, however, be the first round fully overseen by Weiss as she works to revamp the network.
Weiss told staff last month during a company town hall that she wanted to make CBS News “fit for purpose in the 21st century,” and NPR reported that her plans included employee cuts. After a staffer asked Weiss during the meeting whether her vision did include more cuts, Weiss said she couldn‘t rule out staff changes as part of the network’s transformation. Weiss also said she didn’t “have an answer” when asked if the San Francisco bureau’s streaming unit would survive “in the long run,” according to Status.
Since then, CBS News has offered voluntary buyouts to non-unionized “CBS Evening News” staffers. At least 11 of the show’s roughly 40 staffers have taken the buyouts as the show pursues a new direction under Weiss and anchor Tony Dokoupil.
“Evening News” producer Alicia Hastey, one of the employees who opted to leave, tore into the “sweeping new vision” at the network in a note to her colleagues. The shift to “‘heterodox’ journalism,” Hastey said, has taken space from reporting on “underrepresented perspectives, interviews that challenged conventional wisdom and efforts to make our journalism more responsive to a skeptical public.”
“The truth is that commitment to those people and the stories they have to tell is increasingly becoming impossible,” she added. “Stories may instead be evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations — a dynamic that pressures producers and reporters to self-censor or avoid challenging narratives that might trigger backlash or unfavorable headlines.”
A CBS News insider told TheWrap that the network expected some departures as the show transforms. “There’s always turnover when there’s a new anchor and editorial vision,” they said.
Staffers and media critics have criticized the network’s direction, pointing to the Dokoupil’s both-sides coverage on the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and the hiring of contributors like Dr. Peter Attia, who has come under fire for his sexually explicit emails with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Weiss has fought to retain Attia as a contributor, TheWrap reported, while the network has remained silent.
