CBS News is set to ax at least 15% of its staff as part of the next round of anticipated layoffs this spring, according to a report.
The Bari Weiss-led news division’s planned downsizing comes as parent company Paramount Skydance executes a painful restructuring aimed at cutting costs at the network, Variety reported this week.
The cuts could begin as early as March, The Post previously reported. They might also happen starting in May, people familiar with the discussions told Variety, though plans remain fluid.
CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is overseeing a restructuring that could cut at least 15% of the network’s workforce. Getty Images for Uber, X and The Free Press
The Post was first to report earlier this week that 11 producers tied to the “CBS Evening News” have already opted to take buyout packages offered last month.
The buyout offer for staff on Tony Dokoupil’s nightly half-hour newscast was cast as an “extraordinary chance to leave CBS News with an enhanced separation payment.”
Weiss told employees in a January townhall that they were free to exit if they didn’t like her strategy.
She also said she wants to invest in more “revelatory journalism” and emphasize “investigative scoops” that will take advantage of both online and traditional platforms.
Her recent moves suggest the network is shifting resources away from traditional reporting roles and toward personality-driven programming aimed at digital and streaming audiences, Variety and the Status newsletter noted.
Among other steps, Weiss has named a slew of new contributors including the controversial anti-aging influencer Peter Attia, whose email correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein revealed a chummy relationship with the late sex offender.
Staffers at CBS News are bracing for deep cuts after earlier buyouts tied to the network’s overhaul. Getty Images
The influencer apologized, calling some of the messages “embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible.” Weiss has been reluctant to cut ties with him, drawing internal backlash.
The company carried out a round of layoffs in October as part of broader cuts across its parent company, Paramount, with fewer than 100 CBS News employees affected.
At the time, the reductions were largely overseen by CBS News president Tom Cibrowski — before Weiss took a more direct role in shaping the newsroom’s structure.
Tony Dokoupil anchors the nightly broadcast where staffers were offered voluntary buyouts ahead of anticipated layoffs. CBS via Getty Images
The planned cuts are the latest flashpoint in a turbulent stretch for CBS News under her leadership, marked by newsroom unrest and internal criticism over the division’s direction.
Earlier this week, longtime CBS News producer Alicia Hastey quit, blasting the network in a fiery exit memo that accused management of pressuring journalists to “self-censor.”
Hastey wrote that stories were increasingly judged on whether they aligned with shifting expectations rather than purely on journalistic merit, adding that “fear and uncertainty” were undermining the newsroom — another sign of the deep tensions surrounding the overhaul.
The Post has sought comment from CBS News.