CBS "News" Fears Mass Layoffs Under New Skydance Ownership

Won't someone think of the journalists!

[I] can guarantee that the 42-year-old Ellison -- the son of mega-billionaire Larry Ellison of Oracle fame, who is a MAGA supporter of the president -- isn't thinking about the CBS News legacy as he prepares to complete his $8 billion combo.

In fact, from what I hear, continuing in the grand tradition of Murrow, Wallace and Cronkite is not at the top of Ellison's mind because, for one, it ain't so grand any longer, and two (maybe most important), he knows it's a lousy business.

It's not worth the trouble that it generates. We don't even know if it's profitable since Paramount doesn't disclose the news division's P&L statements. Plus, its product has moved so far to the left that it angers more than half the country.

Full disclosure: I don't know David Ellison personally but people I trust do, and they tell me he's substantive, much more than a lucky sperm kid that being Larry's son confers. His independent studio Skydance has produced such recent blockbusters as "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Mission: Impossible -- The Final Reckoning."

He doesn't get his news from TikTok -- far from it.

For the time being, he wants to keep the news division but also move away from its progressive leanings. (A person close to him says look for investments in "truth-based" news.) He does appreciate the CBS News legacy that he is about to buy -- as long as the numbers are working and he believes they aren't, I am told.

And that's where things could get scary for the news division.

Ellison, I am told, equates CBS with football more than he does with Cronkite. If he's looking to grow stuff, he and his point man in running the new company, former NBCU chief Jeff Shell, are looking at CBS Sports as the tip of the spear.

Everything else is about to get the mother of all efficiency reviews, my sources say.

Layoffs are likely, as are smaller salaries and squeezed budgets.

In Ellison's worldview, CBS News' legacy has cachet but when an anchor like Tony Dokoupil gets upbraided by management -- as he did last year -- for questioning the work of far left author Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Coates' rationalization of the Oct. 7 massacre, something needs to change.

...

If I were in the news division, I would be afraid, very afraid.

One can imagine that part of the reason CBS "News" "journalists" fought the Trump settlement is precisely because they wanted to block the Skydance sale from happening, because they knew the new management would fire their lazy, incompetent hack asses.

Paramount slashed 3.5% of its workforce in June.

And that came after it cut 15% of its workforce in 2024.

The latest cuts come after the media giant slashed about 15% of its workforce last year, part of an effort to trim costs by $500 million and return the company to profitability.

For the first three months of the year, Paramount reported net earnings of $152 million on revenue of $7.1 billion, compared with a loss of $563 million on revenue of $7.6 billion in the year-ago period.

From May: CBS "News" may get rid of Leslie Stahl and Scott Pelley.

Staffers are now speculating whether Pelley and Stahl will be the next to go, following the exit of former 60 Minutes showrunner Bill Owens last month.

Both correspondents had made their loyalty to McMahon and Owens known, as the network continues to navigate the president's suit.

Meanwhile, at CNN and ABC "News:"

posted by Ace at 03:30 PM

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