Laurie Orlando, who has supervised talent recruitment and strategy at CBS News for nearly a decade, is leaving the Paramount Skydance operation — the latest of the news division’s senior executives to exit as the parent company overhauls its operations under an iconoclastic new editor in chief.
Orlando sent a note to staffers and acquaintances Monday, according to three people familiar with the matter, saying that “I have decided to retire from this work I love so much and the place that has always felt like home.” Her last day is expected to be November 7. A CBS News spokesperson confirmed Orlando’s departure.
Orlando’s announcement follows the exit earlier this month of Claudia Milne, who had overseen standards and practices at CBS News. The news division has now lost two senior executives since Paramount installed Bari Weiss, a digital entrepreneur who founded the conservative opinion site The Free Press, as editor in chief and the naming of a former Trump adviser as an ombudsman placed the news division under intense scrutiny.
It was not immediately clear who might take on Orlando’s duties, but CBS has a vice president of talent, Angela Hunter, who reported to Orlando, and remains on staff. It is also not clear that Orlando left because of Weiss’ arrival. Paramount has launched a new five-days-a-week in-the-office policy that has spurred some employees to depart, along with a massive set of layoffs that began going into effect last week.
Still, the executive’s departure is sure to spark more scrutiny of CBS News, which been under a microscope following Paramount’s decision to put newsgathering under the aegis of Weiss, who has been skilled at capturing the attention of conservatives and political-opinion aficionados, but who has no experience running a mainstream media organization. Weiss reports directly to David Ellison, Paramount’s new CEO, while the president of CBS News, Tom Cibrowski, is working alongside her to put initiatives into practice.
CBS News has endured months of chaos. Some of its shows, such as “60 Minutes” and “Face the Nation,” have been the subject of complaints from the Trump administration, and two different groups of Paramount managers have undermined those programs’ authority by paying a $16 million settlement to President Trump for what many experts believe was a flimsy lawsuit tied to a “60 Minutes” interview with former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Two senior executives, Bill Owens, the former “60 Minutes” executive producer, and Wendy McMahon, the former head of CBS News and local stations, both left the company, citing differences of opinion on how Paramount was handling these matters. More recently, CBS News agreed to only present live interviews on “Face the Nation,” giving up its ability to edit out falsehoods or stonewalling by guests.
Paramount drew further attention by installing a former Trump adviser, Kenneth Weinstein, as an ombudsman tasked with monitoring CBS News’ reporting and adjudicating claims of bias — a decision that could undermine the authority of the standards department.
Orlando’s role has shifted in recent months as CBS News has been placed under a series of new managers, none of whom seems to stay for more than two to three years. Before returning to oversee talent at CBS News, she had been dispatched to do the same for CBS’ local TV stations. Prior to coming to CBS News, Orlando was a senior vice president for talent development and planning at ESPN, and a sports producer for MSG and Fox Sports.