A Houston-based national reporter is among those affected by the latest round of cuts at CBS News. According to a report from the New York Post, Houston-based correspondent Karen Hua was included in the recent layoffs.
CBS News has not publicly released a full list of those impacted. When asked for comment, a CBS News spokesperson told Chron it is not appropriate to comment on specific individuals who may have been affected by the layoffs.
Hua joined CBS News in February 2025 as part of the network’s push toward community-driven national coverage, reporting across the South and Middle America. In that role, she covered Texas politics, immigration, the deadly Hill Country floods and other major stories shaping the region.
Before CBS, Hua spent three years as a general assignment reporter at NBC10 in Philadelphia and previously worked for News 12 in New York. She began her broadcasting career at KGET-TV, an NBC affiliate in Bakersfield, Calif., where she worked as an investigative reporter and lifestyle host. She also previously wrote as a lifestyle contributor for Forbes.
Born and raised in Boston, Hua is a first-generation Chinese American who is fluent in Mandarin and Spanish. She studied English, psychology and film at the University of Michigan.
Dallas-based correspondent Omar Villafranca was also impacted. Villafranca joined CBS News in 2014 as a correspondent for Newspath, the network’s 24-hour newsgathering service used by stations and broadcasters worldwide.
Before CBS, he reported at KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth, KOTV-TV in Tulsa and KSWO-TV in Lawton, Okla. A San Antonio native, Villafranca graduated from Texas Christian University with a degree in broadcast journalism.
The cuts come as CBS News undergoes a broader restructuring under its parent company, Paramount Skydance, with a shift toward digital and streaming platforms. Earlier this month, the network announced it would shut down CBS News Radio and cut about 6 percent of its workforce, roughly 60 to 70 employees out of about 1,100.
In a message to staff, CBS News leadership called the layoffs a difficult decision, saying the company is restructuring to adapt to a rapidly changing industry and invest in new audiences.
The latest layoffs follow an earlier round in October 2025, when Paramount Global eliminated about 1,000 jobs worldwide, including roughly 100 at CBS News. Houston-based correspondent Janet Shamlian was among those affected.