Layoffs hit CBS News and Paramount as David Ellison’s cost-cutting plan takes effect

The feared hammer is coming down at Paramount.

When David Ellison took over the media company in August, plans were put in place to greatly reduce staff and costs. That massive reduction began Wednesday as 1,000 staffers — somewhere between 5% and 10% of the organization — were laid off.

And this is just the beginning.

The Los Angeles Times’ Meg James and Samantha Masunaga reported, “People familiar with the matter but not authorized to comment said the layoffs were being felt throughout the organization, including at CBS, CBS News, cable channels including MTV and Comedy Central, television production as well as the historic Melrose Avenue film studio.”

CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that nearly 100 positions at CBS News are being eliminated. Stelter added that plans for the cuts were already in place before Ellison hired Bari Weiss to be CBS News’ editor-in-chief.

The biggest casualty at CBS News known thus far: The co-hosts of “CBS Saturday Morning” are out, according to the New York Post’s Alexandra Steigrad. The Post reports that co-anchors Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson and executive producer Brian Applegate will be pushed out as the show is retooled or possibly eliminated. Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski are overseeing the overhaul of that show, according to Steigrad, although there are no other details, such as when the current show will end and when (and if) a new show will be put in its place.

Steigrad wrote, “Sources close to the situation noted that CBS’s new bosses Weiss and Cibrowski — who have been tapped by CBS owner Paramount Skydance to overhaul the Tiffany Network — decided that the show was ‘too expensive.’ The show, which is broadcast out of New York, has seen its ratings slip 10% in total viewers to 1.9 million and 20% in the 25 to 54-year-old demo to 346,000 for the season.”

In addition, it appears a couple of streaming shows — “CBS Mornings Plus” and “CBS Evening News Plus” — are also being nixed, and the news department’s Johannesburg bureau will be closed.

Ellison wrote in an email to staff, “Today we begin the difficult process of informing impacted team members across the company. These decisions are never made lightly, especially given their effect on our colleagues who have made meaningful contributions to the company.”

While the moves were a gut punch to the company, especially those who are now without jobs, the cuts did not come as a surprise. As the Los Angeles Times wrote, “Paramount’s new owners — Ellison’s Skydance Media and RedBird Capital Partners — had told investors they planned to eliminate more than $2 billion in expenses, and Wednesday’s workforce reduction was a preliminary step toward that goal.”

More cuts are coming. Some estimates are that when it’s all said and done, another 1,000 will be laid off in the near future.

Ellison wrote in his email to staff, “​​In some areas, we are addressing redundancies that have emerged across the organization. In others, we are phasing out roles that are no longer aligned with our evolving priorities and the new structure designed to strengthen our focus on growth.”

The Guardian’s Jeremy Barr reported that Weiss addressed the cuts in Wednesday morning’s editorial call with staff, telling them, “This is just an enormously difficult day for so many people that have given years of their lives to this company, and I’m sorry, and want to support everyone in whatever way I can.”

Barr also tweeted, “One CBS News staffer described the cuts as a ‘blood bath.’ I’ve also heard that the Race and Culture unit was ‘gutted.’”

A MESSAGE FROM POYNTER

Reach the right audience with Poynter.

Connect your message to thousands of media professionals and people who value good journalism by advertising on poynter.org or in Poynter’s suite of newsletters, including The Poynter Report with Tom Jones.

Find out more or place a request here.

Well, isn’t this embarrassing?

Earlier this week, a notable British newspaper — The Times of London — quoted who its reporter said was former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio criticizing New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

The juicy headline: “Zohran Mamdani ally Bill de Blasio says his policies ‘don’t add up.’”

One problem. It wasn’t de Blasio.

Apparently, it was an imposter who was quoted by The Times of London and reporter Bevan Hurley. About 90 minutes after the article was published online, de Blasio wrote on social media, “I want to be 100% clear: The story in the Times of London is entirely false and fabricated. It was just brought to my attention and I’m appalled. I never spoke to that reporter and never said those things. Those quotes aren’t mine, don’t reflect my views.”

If you click on The Times of London story now, you get an error message.

The Times of London told The Washington Post’s Leo Sands in a statement, “The Times has apologized to Bill de Blasio and removed the article immediately after discovering that our reporter had been misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor.”

The paper, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., did not reveal any more details, such as who the imposter was and how it came to be that this person was quoted.

However, Semafor’s Max Tani reported, “Part of the push came from the top. As the New York mayor’s race approaches, the Times of London has accelerated its push for more, and largely hostile, coverage of Mamdani. That campaign has been driven internally by Margi Conklin, a New York Post veteran who was most recently managing editor at The Free Press, and who assigned the de Blasio piece, per two people with knowledge of the situation. Three people familiar with the situation told Semafor that Hurley reached out to an email address the reporter believed belonged to the former mayor of New York. It’s unclear where he got the address, or who it actually belongs to.”

Radio Free Asia stops publishing for the first time in 29 years

For this item, I turn it over to my Poynter colleague, Angela Fu.

Federally funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia announced Wednesday that it will suspend its editorial operations for the first time in its 29-year history this Friday.

Though Radio Free Asia is an independent nonprofit, it relies entirely on grants from the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which in turn is funded by Congress. Now that the government has shut down — due to Congress’ inability to pass a spending bill for the 2026 fiscal year, which started Oct. 1 — Radio Free Asia has run out of funds. As a result, Radio Free Asia is closing down bureaus across Asia and laying off employees.

Prior to its closure, Radio Free Asia was already a shadow of its former self, thanks to repeated attempts by President Donald Trump’s administration to defund it and its sister newsrooms. In March, Trump ordered the elimination of USAGM’s nonstatutory functions. USAGM immediately stopped funding Radio Free Asia and two other nonprofit newsrooms, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. The agency also placed more than 1,000 employees at Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting on administrative leave. Media watchers criticized the move, pointing out that all five news outlets play a vital role in distributing reliable information to audiences in countries that lack a free press.

Since March, Radio Free Asia has had to significantly reduce its operations. It has fought back against the cuts via a lawsuit against the Trump administration. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Middle East Broadcasting Networks and Voice of America staff also filed similar lawsuits.) But despite a federal judge ordering the administration in April to resume funding, Radio Free Asia has had to lay off staff and close many of its language services, including the world’s only independent Uyghur language news service.

Even amid the cutbacks, Radio Free Asia won two national Edward R. Murrow awards in August for its coverage of young people in post-coup Myanmar. Now, however, the newsroom will stop publishing completely and lay off most of its remaining staff. Radio Free Asia will have fewer than 30 staff left, down from 400 full-time employees and 460 contractors in February, The Washington Post reported. The remaining staff will be ready to restart operations if consistent funding becomes available.

​​“However drastic these measures may seem, they position RFA, a private corporation, for a future in which it would be possible to scale up and resume providing accurate, uncensored news for people living in some of the world’s most closed places,” Radio Free Asia president and CEO Bay Fang wrote in a statement.

USAGM senior adviser Kari Lake told the Post that Radio Free Asia’s closure is “entirely” due to the government shutdown. “The president has called on Congress to pass a clean (continuing resolution) to resume funding to the government, which would address this problem.”

Live inside the storm

Check out the latest from my Poynter colleague Amaris Castillo: “Through wind and flooding, an AP journalist shows what Hurricane Melissa left behind in Jamaica.”

Castillo talked with Matias Delacroix, a photojournalist for The Associated Press, who has been in Jamaica for the powerful Category 5 hurricane. He told Castillo that this is his first hurricane.

Which begs the question: Why? Why put yourself in danger?

Castillo wrote Wednesday, after the storm had passed the island, “Delacroix’s next assignment is to capture the storm’s aftermath. He had yet to see the devastation himself and cautioned about videos circulating online that may contain misinformation.”

Delacroix told Castillo, “So that’s the motive to go there and see with our own eyes what is happening.”

Meanwhile, for The Associated Press, here’s Taimoor Sobhan and Kelvin Chan with “Phony AI-generated videos of Hurricane Melissa flood social media sites.”

Correction

I need to correct something that appeared in last week’s newsletter. We inaccurately reported that the ACLU of Northern California brought forward the case of the Stanford Daily. It was actually the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

Media tidbits

• You probably heard about a reporter who recently asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about who recommended that Budapest be the site for a proposed meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and her answer was, “Your mom did.” Apparently, it wasn’t the first time the reporter was given disrespectful answers from the White House. The New York Times’ Erik Wemple profiles HuffPost reporter Shirish Dáte in “When This Reporter Comes Calling, the White House Insults Go Flying.”
• Variety’s Todd Spangler with “Disney Closes Deal Merging Hulu Live TV With Fubo.”
• Nieman Lab’s Sophie Culpepper with “The Salt Lake Tribune, preparing to drop its paywall, launches a free, monthly print newspaper for Southern Utah.”
• The New York Times’ Nicholas Fandos with “How Andrew Cuomo’s Dreams of Becoming a Radio Star Fell Apart.”
• Excellent work from The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell and Joyce Sohyun Lee: “We checked DHS’s videos of chaos and protests. Here’s what they leave out.”

Hot type

• The Athletic’s Brendan Quinn features the songwriter and frontman for The National in “Matt Berninger traded his notebook for a baseball. And the words kept coming.”

More resources for journalists

• Deepen your coverage of incarcerated women and women with incarcerated family members and get the chance to apply for one of five $10,000 reporting grants. Enroll now
• Journalists: It’s time to take care of yourself, too. Enroll now in a free session on embodiment practices to rest and regroup.
• Amp up your editing skills, improve your work life and advance your career with Poynter’s ACES Certificates.
• Gain the skills to spot AI risks like bias, misinformation and hallucinations before they harm your work. Enroll now.
• Stop wasting hours on repetitive tasks — automate them instead. Learn how.
• Interested in learning more about funding local news? Start here.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].

The Poynter Report is your daily dive into the world of media, packed with the latest news and insights. Get it delivered to your inbox Monday through Friday by signing up here. And don’t forget to tune into our biweekly podcast for even more.