CBS News announces layoffs, bosses acknowledge 'difficult day' as dozens of staffers expected to be impacted

CBS News announced layoffs Friday expected to impact roughly 6% of its workforce, Fox News Digital confirmed.

"It’s no secret that the news business is changing radically, and that we need to change along with it," CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski wrote to staff in a memo obtained by Fox News Digital. "New audiences are burgeoning in new places, and we are pressing forward with ambitious plans to grow and invest so that we can be there for them. That means some parts of our newsroom must get smaller to make room for the things we must build to remain competitive.

"But these are very hard choices and today is a difficult day," they added.

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The round of layoffs will hit dozens of staffers across the newsroom. Among the cuts are staffers of CBS News Radio, which will dissolve in May after nearly 100 years of operation. 

"Today, we informed our CBS News Radio team and approximately 700 affiliated stations that we will end the service on May 22, 2026. Unfortunately, this decision means that all positions within the CBS News Radio team are being eliminated," Weiss and Cibrowski wrote in a second memo Friday.

According to the memo, impacted staffers will be notified by the end of the workday.

Last fall, parent company Paramount implemented mass layoffs, slashing roughly 1,000 jobs across the board, including at CBS News. Earlier this year, the network also implemented a buyout program specifically targeting "CBS Evening News" staffers. Roughly 11 staffers accepted the buyout, according to Deadline.

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CBS News has been going through major changes ever since new Paramount owner David Ellison took over the company. One of his first acts was tapping Weiss to lead the Tiffany Network newsroom, which sparked backlash among liberal critics over her heterodox point of view despite her outspoken left-of-center politics. Ellison also acquired her outlet, The Free Press, for $150 million.

There have been several exits during Weiss' months-long tenure so far, including the network's star "60 Minutes" correspondent Anderson Cooper, CBS News justice correspondent Scott MacFarlane as well as multiple producers, some of whom accuse Weiss of pushing an ideological direction.

However, Weiss has been able to maintain some talent so far, like longtime "CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King, who recently signed a new deal to stay at the network after rumors of her exit emerged in tabloids. She also has made some hires, like her poaching ABC News correspondent Matt Gutman and announcing a slew of new CBS News contributors.

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Weiss' biggest move at the network so far was her appointment of Tony Dokoupil to be the new face of "CBS Evening News," hoping he will turn around the beleaguered third-place newscast that has had a revolving door of anchors.