Paramount’s cuts across the company hit CBS News on Wednesday, with the streaming editions of CBS Mornings and the CBS Evening News canceled and CBS Saturday Morning in for an overhaul, according to a source familiar with the plans.
The network also is closing its bureau in Johannesburg.
In all, the layoffs are impacting almost CBS News 100 staffers, according to sources familiar with the extent of the cuts. They are part of a round of layoffs impacting about 1,000 across Paramount following Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount Global. Another round of 1,000 job cuts is expected in the coming months.
“People are very on-edge,” said one staffer, describing the mood as “depressed and unhappy” and “a very tough day at the network.”
The cuts were in the works before Bari Weiss was named editor in chief of the news division this month.
It was unclear what the fate would be of the two hosts of CBS Saturday Morning, Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson. Jeff Glor, the previous host and former anchor of CBS Evening News, was laid off in a previous round of cuts last year, as Paramount Global slimmed down in preparation for a sale.
CBS Mornings Plus debuted last year as a streaming third hour of the network’s morning program, hosted by Adriana Diaz and Tony Dokoupil. CBS Evening News Plus was anchored by John Dickerson, who announced this week that he was leaving the network at the end of the year.
The layoffs are said to be spread throughout the news division. They are only the latest cuts at a legacy media outlet this year. NBC News announced layoffs of about 150 staffers as it prepared for the split from sister network MSNBC, which is being spun off along with other Comcast cable networks into a new company, Versant. There were significant layoffs to teams devoted to diversity verticals, such as NBC Out and NBC Blk, although those online sites will continue.
The Writers Guild of America East, which represents employees in the news division, issued a joint statement with the Writers Guild of America West on the Paramount cuts. “Today, we once again see the toll on media workers and the news industry caused by unfettered corporate consolidation. The WGAE and WGAW are working with impacted members to ensure our collective bargaining agreements are enforced and labor law is followed in these layoffs at Paramount Skydance.”
