CBS News to lay off 6% of staff, shutter CBS News Radio
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CBS News is laying off 6% of its staff, or around 66 people, a source confirmed to Axios. It will also shutter CBS News Radio, which serves approximately 700 affiliate stations nationwide. All of those staffers' positions will be eliminated.
Why it matters: It's the second round of layoffs under CBS' new ownership and management team.
State of play: The radio cuts are especially notable given CBS News' legacy as a pioneer of news radio, dating back nearly a century.
- CBS News Radio's flagship program, "World News Roundup," is the longest-running daily radio newscast in the country. Edward R. Murrow's historical reporting about WWII stemmed from that broadcast.
Zoom in: The announcements were made to staff Friday morning via two separate memos from editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and president Tom Cibrowski. The cuts are meant to reposition CBS News for the future, they said.
- "It's no secret that the news business is changing radically, and that we need to change along with it," they wrote, referring to the newsroom cuts.
- "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."
- "While this was a necessary decision, it was not an easy one," they said, referencing the radio cuts. "A shift in radio station programming strategies, coupled with challenging economic realities, has made it impossible to continue the service."
Catch up quick: CBS' parent Paramount was acquired by Skydance Media last summer.
- Paramount acquired Weiss' startup, The Free Press, shortly after in October, and CEO and chair David Ellison named Weiss editor-in-chief of CBS News.
- CBS News had cuts shortly after Weiss' company was acquired. Programming changes were made alongside those layoffs.
Between the lines: CBS News' workers who are unionized with the Writers Guild of America East have been trying to negotiate a new contract agreement with management.
- Staffers at the outlet's streaming service CBS News 24/7 walked out on the job Tuesday in protest of stalled negotiations.
The big picture: Media cuts have become more common in recent years amid high levels of consolidation.
- Roughly 30% of the more than 17,000 media job cuts last year were attributed to acquisitions and mergers, according to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
