CBS News shuts down radio service after nearly 100 years

CBS News has said it is shutting down its radio service after nearly 100 years, in a fresh round of layoffs.

The service is expected to end on 22 May, affecting more than 700 affiliate stations, the editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, and president Tom Cibrowski announced on Friday.

Employees will be notified by the end of the day if their job has been affected, they said. The cuts could impact about 6% of its workforce, or more than 60 people, US media report.

"While this was a necessary decision, it was not an easy one," Weiss and Cibrowski said, adding that a "shift in radio station programming strategies" and economic challenges "made it impossible to continue the service".

"...Parts of our newsroom must get smaller to make room for the things we must build to remain competitive," they said.

CBS came under the control of David Ellison, the son of tech billionaire and Trump ally Larry Ellison, after he took over Paramount as part of a wider merger with his Hollywood studio Skydance last year.

Ellisons' earlier takeover of Paramount was approved by the Trump administration this summer, after Paramount agreed to pay $16m to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump over a 60 Minutes interview.

Ellison then hired former New York Times opinion writer, Bari Weiss, as the editor-in-chief of CBS News last October, as part of what he said was an effort to modernise content at Paramount and make CBS the "most-trusted name in news".

Weiss, who has criticised broadcast media for becoming too partisan and liberal, had previously said she aims to change editorial decision-making at CBS.

CBS News has a partnership agreement with the BBC, meaning news content including video footage can be shared. BBC News is editorially independent of CBS.

Some high-profile journalists have also left the network in recent months, including 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper, who in February said he would be leaving the programme to spend more time with his family.

Weiss also faced criticism in December after she made the decision to pull a segment from 60 Minutes about the Trump administration's deportations of Venezuelan men to a detention centre in El Salvador.

Weiss told colleagues in an editorial meeting that the segment about the Salvadoran prison "did not advance the ball" and required more interviews.

Since taking over, Weiss has announced a series of changes. In January, she unveiled plans to hire new contributors and restructure its digital news coverage.

CBS News has a partnership agreement with the BBC, meaning news content including video footage can be shared. BBC News is editorially independent of CBS.

In the memo to staff on Friday, Weiss and Cibrowksi said it was "no secret" the news business is changing, and that "we need to change along with it".

"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," it added.