CBS News is entering one of the most turbulent chapters in its storied history, facing an imminent wave of layoffs, a restless workforce, declining viewership, and deep uncertainty over its future — all as editor-in-chief Bari Weiss presses ahead with a sweeping transformation of the nearly century-old news organization, according to Business Insider. Now CBS’s head of news has emailed staff to let them know layoffs are coming. Reports are 6% of the CBS News Staff could be cut in this new round of layoffs.
Weiss is reportedly planning the imminent layoff of dozens of staffers as she moves to remake the network for the digital age. The cuts had been telegraphed for weeks. At a late-January town hall meeting, Weiss told CBS News employees that a “tsunami of technological change” would likely lead to changes at the network, and that CBS would be shifting away from what she called “commodity news” in favor of exclusive reports unavailable elsewhere.
CBS News is considering a fresh round of layoffs that could total at least 6% of its current staff — a significant blow to an organization that has already been through multiple rounds of cuts. Paramount has already cut roughly 1,000 jobs across the company since its merger with Skydance, and about 11 producers tied to “CBS Evening News” accepted buyout packages earlier this year. The latest layoff timeline could run from March through May.
The turmoil arrives at a particularly fraught moment. CBS Evening News, now anchored by Tony Dokoupil, slipped below 4 million viewers for the first time since Dokoupil took over in January, averaging 3.83 million viewers for the week of March 9 — down from an early peak of 4.6 million and well behind ABC’s World News Tonight, which drew 8.48 million viewers that same week, and NBC’s Nightly News, which averaged 6.51 million. Quarter-to-date, CBS Evening News has shed 15% of its viewership in the key Adults 25-54 demographic compared with the same period a year ago.
The departures of prominent on-air talent have compounded the sense of institutional upheaval. High-profile journalists including Justice Department correspondent Scott MacFarlane, 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper, and former evening news anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois have all left the network since Weiss took the helm last October.
Meanwhile, the network’s unionized workers have grown increasingly combative. Writers Guild of America East members at CBS News 24/7 held a 24-hour walkout on Tuesday, claiming management failed to reach agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement with the 60-member bargaining unit after the current contract expired on March 9. Unionized staffers cited layoffs, editorial interference, and political pressure as existential threats following the Paramount-Skydance merger.
The conflict also underscores the complications arising from Paramount’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery and CNN — a deal that would leave the company with two major global news outlets. CBS News has four unionized bargaining units, while CNN is not unionized, complicating any effort to merge the two organizations.
Paramount is now set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $31 per share, putting the company’s valuation at $111 billion, a financial commitment that union members say makes the company’s resistance to fair labor terms all the more difficult to justify. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jerry Nadler both publicly sided with striking workers, noting the apparent contradiction between a $110 billion acquisition and the unwillingness to guarantee fair wages for CBS staffers.
The Writers Guild condemned the broader pattern of consolidation, calling the layoffs a direct consequence of unchecked corporate mergers.
Weiss has also faced criticism over editorial decisions, including withholding a report on President Trump’s deportation policies while Paramount was in negotiations to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Those decisions have fueled accusations from some within the building that the new leadership is pulling punches to protect corporate interests — charges Weiss has denied.
While programs such as 60 Minutes and CBS Sunday Morning continue to attract sizable audiences and the advertising dollars that follow, Weiss appears focused on repositioning CBS News for streaming-first viewers on Paramount+ rather than the traditional broadcast audience. Whether that gamble pays off — or accelerates the erosion of a network that was once the gold standard of American journalism — remains the defining question of her tenure.
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