CBS News Announces Fresh Round Of Layoffs As Bari Weiss Buzzsaw Continues

After paying Bari Weiss $150 million for The Free Press and hiring her to run their newsroom, CBS News announced a fresh round of layoffs on Friday which will affect over 60 jobs, or 6% of the news division, according to the NY Times. 

“Certain parts of this newsroom need to get smaller in order for us to make room for the things that we need to build to remain competitive in the future,” said Weiss, who entered the scene last October, during a Friday newsroom-wide conference call. 

The move follows roughly 100 layoffs last year, while ratings have continued to plummet under Weiss.

Today’s round includes the entirety of CBS News Radio – a century-old division that “served as the foundation for everything we have built since 1927,” said network president Tom Cibrowski in a memo. 

CBS came under the control of David Ellison, a billionaire tech heir, after his Hollywood studio Skydance absorbed the media giant Paramount last year. The Trump administration approved Mr. Ellison’s purchase after Paramount paid $16 million to settle a suit brought by President Trump against “60 Minutes.”

Mr. Ellison said he wanted CBS News to appeal to a centrist audience, and he installed Ms. Weiss, an opinion journalist and critic of the mainstream news media, as its new leader. –NYT

According to Weiss and 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,” the memo continues. 

Weiss told employees that today’s layoffs had “absolutely nothing to do with the quality of your work and the way you have poured your heart and soul into this organization,” and “simply has everything to do with the times we’re living in.”

Of course, not that we’re shedding a tear – but that $150 million would have kept the 160 employees employed for something like a decade. 

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