According to Reuters, CBS is trimming its staff "amid a tough media environment and declines in television and print news outlets." According to the article, CBS is cutting one percent of its 1,200 employee workforce, including the news division. This includes many layoffs for anchors and reporters, including several who supposedly make salaries in the millions of dollars.Most interesting is the observations of Barrington Research analyst James Goss: "My sense is that the layoffs extended to some high-priced and highly visible local talent with an eye toward applying some of the same return on investment-focused expense disciplines that started at the network level."
Much as I'm sorry to hear that CBS has to lay off some staffers, given the current state of the economy and the changing nature of news broadcasting, it's not really surprising. It does always seem like the news departments are the first to be cut in any sort of network economic crisis. Still, I do wonder if they could have cut costs a little more and had some more layoffs at the executive levels.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-03-2008 @ 8:20AM
Cristy said...
one percent of its 1,200 employee workforce
1200/100=12. 12 employees? That doesn't sound right.
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4-03-2008 @ 9:54AM
JimB said...
I was going to say the same thing. 12 employees does not sound like a significant "belt tightening".
Although I guess if they picked the right 12 CBS employees, it really could result in significant savings to the network.
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4-03-2008 @ 11:39AM
chgosaint said...
18 employees were cut at the CBS-owned WBBM in Chicago. Maybe if CBS News didn't waste a fortune on the untalented Couris, people would still have their jobs. She didn't just destroy ratings at the national news level, she affects local news as well. I think most people who do watch local news, tend to watch the same national news.
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4-03-2008 @ 12:26PM
mj said...
Oh, so THAT'[S why they dumped Jericho!! (Fingers crossed, Couric is next!!!)
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4-03-2008 @ 3:20PM
MERVE-THE-PERVE said...
I can only hope that Nina Tassler is one! Her and any other idiots responsible for screwing over Jericho!
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4-03-2008 @ 10:18PM
Chris Carey said...
Great now they can afford to bring back Jericho and ooo I dont sell ads on a well written show. If not well RIP CBS maybe you can do a CSI spinoff on who killed CBS.
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