Tony Dokoupil begins his role as anchor of 'CBS Evening News' amid a period of reinvention for CBS News under new editor Bari Weiss, facing challenges such as declining viewership, a shift in news presentation style, and recent controversies including the removal of a '60 Minutes' story on a U.S. detention facility, all against a backdrop of broader industry trust issues and leadership changes.
CBS Saturday Morning co-hosts Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson are among nearly 100 CBS News employees laid off as part of Paramount's broader cost-cutting measures, which include restructuring the show and canceling related programs, amid a plan to reduce costs by $2 billion across the company.
MSNBC is rebranding to MS NOW as part of its separation from NBC, including removing NBC branding and establishing a more independent identity to better serve its liberal audience and build its own news organization.
MSNBC will be rebranded as MS NOW and will spin off from Comcast, establishing an independent news organization under the new company Versant, with a focus on building its own identity separate from NBC News and the Peacock logo.
Google has cut dozens of jobs in its news division, a move that comes at a sensitive time for online platforms and publishers. While the exact number of job losses is unknown, an Alphabet Workers Union spokesperson estimated that around 40 to 45 workers in Google News have been affected. The layoffs coincide with a surge in misinformation due to ongoing conflicts, highlighting the importance of reliable news sources. Google stated that the internal changes will not impact their efforts to combat misinformation and maintain information quality. This follows previous layoffs across various departments within the company earlier this year.
BuzzFeed is shutting down its news division and laying off 180 staffers, in addition to the 12% of its workforce cut earlier this year. The company's CEO, Jonah Peretti, said that he "overinvested" in the news division and failed to recognize early enough that the financial support needed to sustain operations was not there. The company will have one remaining news brand, HuffPost. BuzzFeed News won its first Pulitzer in 2021, in international reporting, for a series on the infrastructure built by the Chinese government for the mass detention of Muslims.
BuzzFeed is shutting down its news division as part of an effort to cut 15% of its workforce, affecting 180 people across the company's business, content, tech, and administrative teams. The company's founder, Jonah Peretti, said he "made the decision to overinvest" in BuzzFeed's news division because he loved the work it produced but acknowledged that he had been slow to accept that social media platforms would not provide the financial support needed to make Buzzfeed News profitable. BuzzFeed will continue to publish news on HuffPost, which Mr. Peretti said in his memo was profitable and less dependent on social platforms.
