‘CBS Evening News’ staffers are ‘leaping ship’ – Business News
About a quarter of “CBS Evening News” staffers eligible for buyouts have chosen the option forward of impending layoffs below editor in chief Bari Weiss, The Post has realized.
Eleven staffers opted for buyouts, which had been solely provided to non-unionized staff, a source with data of the matter mentioned Tuesday.
They embody a minimum of six producers out of the show’s complete of roughly 20, in line with one other source, who added: “Seems like people are jumping ship.”
“It’s a lot of people,” a CBS insider mentioned.
Roughly 25% of non-union staffers of Tony Dokoupil’s “CBS Evening News” took a buyout to go away the community. CBS News
The “Evening News” has over 40 non-unionized staffers, a source mentioned.
A CBS News rep declined to remark.
Last month, the community introduced the “extraordinary chance” for eligible staffers to take a one-time voluntary buyout forward of company-wide layoffs that would kick off as quickly as March, in line with a source.
The offer got here after Weiss instructed staff in a January townhall that they had been free to go away in the event that they didn’t like her strategy for the struggling information division.
“It’s a free country, and I completely respect if you decide I’m not the right leader for you, or this isn’t the right place at the right time,” she mentioned.
CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss provided “Evening News” staffers a voluntary buyout, following a townhall assembly the place she laid out her imaginative and prescient for the company. CBS through Getty Images
At the city corridor, which got here as Weiss has sought to shake up the community, she mentioned she needs to invest in more “revelatory journalism” and emphasize “investigative scoops” that may take benefit of each online and conventional platforms.
“We have to look honestly at ourselves. We are not producing a product that enough people want,” Weiss mentioned, including that she hopes to “earn” the trust of CBS News staffers alongside the best way.
She additionally named a slew of new contributors together with the controversial anti-aging influencer Peter Attia, whose electronic mail correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein has not too long ago revealed a chummy relationship with the convicted intercourse trafficker.
CBS News is anticipated to endure one other spherical of layoffs as early as March below Weiss. Christopher Sadowski for NY Post
Attia mentioned on X earlier this month that he’s ashamed” of his “tasteless and indefensible” correspondence with Epstein — which included an electronic mail through which he instructed the pervert that “p—y is, indeed, low carb.”
Despite inside outrage and requires the community to cut ties with Attia, Weiss — a longtime critic of cancel tradition — has been sticking by her rent, The Post first reported.
Her different efforts to reinvigorate the community embody changing “Evening News” anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois with Tony Dokoupil.
She additionally shelved a “60 Minutes” report on El Salvador’s infamous CECOT jail, ready to air it till more reporting was added however drawing sturdy employees pushback on the time.
