Wednesday’s Paramount layoffs have hit CBS News, with a source saying that every corner of the news division has been impacted.
While the cuts are being felt across the division, some shows will feel the impact more than others. CBS Mornings Plus and CBS Evening News Plus, the streaming spinoffs of the network’s morning and evening news programs, are being canceled, a source says. CBS Morning Plus is anchored by Tony Dokoupil and Adriana Diaz, while CBS Evening News Plus is led by John Dickerson, who announced his exit from CBS News earlier this week.
In addition, the Saturday edition of CBS Mornings will be overhauled with a new format, with staffing merged with the team running the weekday edition of the program. And CBS News will close its Johannesburg, South Africa bureau, with the London bureau adding oversight of the region.
Many TV news divisions have cut back their foreign bureaus in recent years, with overseas correspondents among the first to be cut loose in restructurings. Similarly, while streaming has been a source of investment for TV news divisions, the relatively modest viewership has made monetization challenging in comparison to their linear counterparts.
The changes come just weeks after Bari Weiss joined Tom Cibrowski atop the network news division, though the layoffs have been in the works going back to Skydance’s takeover of Paramount back in August. According to a source, Weiss told staff on the daily editorial call that it would be a “difficult day” at CBS News.
“In some areas, we are addressing redundancies that have emerged across the organization. In 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,” Paramount CEO David Ellison told staff Wednesday. “Ultimately, these steps are necessary to position Paramount for long-term success.”
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