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DEVELOPING: CBS Layoffs


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Honestly, I'm not surprised about the CBSN local concept. Yes, the pandemic didn't help, but beyond the 2 flagships, few seemed to be ready to fill the slots with original programming. Live and rerun newscasts (with the national feed, as necessary) is not what was advertised, and certainly not impressive enough to exist beyond a simple stream that many stations' web feeds have resembled for years.

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1 hour ago, SFTV said:

KBCW is airing an episode of Friends instead of CBSN Bay Area.

 

However online is streaming a repeat of the 7pm News 


Rich Lieberman is reporting they canned CBSN Bay Area


https://richliebermanreport.blogspot.com/2020/05/breaking-blowout-wednesday-at-cbsn-bay.html?m=1

I take whatever Rich writes with a grain of salt so I hadn't caught what he originally wrote about CBSN Bay Area, so I reread his post after seeing yours, checked KPIX, and realized, this really is happening. They began streaming WCCO and that hadn't happened before, not even looping their own 11PM newscast. CBSN is just seemingly far too costly to operate given corporate's current pocketbook in its current shape and it's so sad. Also, do you happen to know when KBCW axed Nightbeat in its original form? I know Veronica's been out for a while, but I don't recall if Nightbeat had continued when she was still on air. 

 

Certainly agree with you, @24994J; WFOR, WJZ, and KOVR have yet to launch and it's just so many resources for a model that hadn't even been operating at 100% for the flagships since their launches and all the subsequent launches. Soft launches (e.g. WBBM) really aren't doing that much more than what the original feeds already were doing either. CBS Local also rolled out a new app for the O&Os that the anchors have all been peddling, but they essentially act like a bookmark on your phone for the stations' websites, so I don't know if they're really any more of a draw than the older app that they ask us to delete and replace. There's just so much missing potential. 

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9 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

\CBS Local also rolled out a new app for the O&Os that the anchors have all been peddling, but they essentially act like a bookmark on your phone for the stations' websites, so I don't know if they're really any more of a draw than the older app that they ask us to delete and replace. There's just so much missing potential. 

I had been using the CBS Local app to stream WBBM's coverage of the press conferences after Nexstar trashed the WGN Apple TV/Roku apps and noticed their 'notifications' just opened up a Safari page, no better than the Scripps 'web wrapper' apps before their redesign. The new app just opens to the start page no matter the notification, which is even worse design.

 

The problem was Viacom was never going to allow CBSN Local to go forward. A company whose pandemic network responses has been to rerun shows to death 24/7 was not going to invest any longer in original local content. And not running it on their DT2s (or 3's or 4's because Dabl somehow became a thing; at least Start TV is justifiable) was beyond inexplicable.

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Essentially enlarging the post-split Viacom was a horrible idea. Their philosophy is to water everything down and hope people don't notice, or take shortcuts and then sink into a tar pit once those shortcuts stop working or disappear entirely...

 

Remember how, back in 2008, Paramount had Iron Man/Marvel, Indiana Jones, and both DreamWorkses (Animation and the live-action side that they owned at the time)? Notice how all of those things are gone now? And of course how Nickelodeon has basically spent the entire period since the mid-2000s becoming The SpongeBob Channel?

 

This philosophy is going to damage CBS a lot. Bakish and co. seem very much like neophytes to CBS News, and they hardly seem to care about the O&Os at all. (Plus Bakish basically seems to be Shari's puppet anyway)

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14 hours ago, channel2 said:

Essentially enlarging the post-split Viacom was a horrible idea. Their philosophy is to water everything down and hope people don't notice, or take shortcuts and then sink into a tar pit once those shortcuts stop working or disappear entirely...

 

Remember how, back in 2008, Paramount had Iron Man/Marvel, Indiana Jones, and both DreamWorkses (Animation and the live-action side that they owned at the time)? Notice how all of those things are gone now? And of course how Nickelodeon has basically spent the entire period since the mid-2000s becoming The SpongeBob Channel?

 

This philosophy is going to damage CBS a lot. Bakish and co. seem very much like neophytes to CBS News, and they hardly seem to care about the O&Os at all. (Plus Bakish basically seems to be Shari's puppet anyway)

 

The O&Os aren't going to be network owned much longer.

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2 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

Also, do you happen to know when KBCW axed Nightbeat in its original form? I know Veronica's been out for a while, but I don't recall if Nightbeat had continued when she was still on air. 

 
The half hour Nightbeat newscast was cancelled back in January for CBSN Bay Area which went full hour. Veronica didn’t go on leave until Mid March? All I remember the last time I saw her on air was shortly after the Grand Princess Cruise Ship saga on where to dock.
I do hope she is okay and will be back on air soon.

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CBS execs reportedly 'DISCUSSING' taking a pay cut

 

I guess "[we] did everything in our power to try to mitigate not having to cut people. ... We absolutely did everything in our power to make the human cuts as the last resort." doesn't include doing the right thing and taking a pay cut.

 

Sidenote:

 

WBBM has removed the bios of those that were cut, except for Pam Zekman. Could just be an oversight or they will allow her to say goodbye and retire instead.

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15 minutes ago, newsbot said:

Also at WBZ, weekend anchor/weekday reporter Katie Brace is out as well.

Are they going to replace these people? I can't believe these layoffs. These are high-profile positions & Chris was well-liked, I believe.

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13 hours ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

The O&Os aren't going to be networked owned much longer.

ABC7 Denver, I agree with you.  I see a future when CBS doesn't have any O&O stations. 

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11 hours ago, jase said:

WBBM has removed the bios of those that were cut, except for Pam Zekman. Could just be an oversight or they will allow her to say goodbye and retire instead.

 

And while Pam's is up, Jay Levine's has finally been removed. He retired a few years ago, and was supposed to continue as a special contributor. As far as I know, that never happened, and his farewell was his final time on-air.

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Another note to add about WBBM:

Eric Cox and Chelsea Irving were also removed from the website. 

I'm not as familiar with CBS2, so I don't know if Chelsea was actively reporting as of recent, given the lack of any active social media. 

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15 hours ago, newsbot said:

Add weekend anchor/weekday reporter Katie Brace from WBZ to the list as well.

Wow. She was a good one. CBS just continues to shoot themselves in the foot.

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7 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

Another note to add about WBBM:

Eric Cox and Chelsea Irving were also removed from the website. 

I'm not as familiar with CBS2, so I don't know if Chelsea was actively reporting as of recent, given the lack of any active social media. 


Eric’s last report was Wednesday, so it’s possible he was likely cut too. Irving’s last known report was from last September, so I’m guessing they finally got around to removing her bio (like Jay).

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  • 2 weeks later...

WFOR's Carey Codd is officially gone from the website. His last story was on June 5th, covering the protests, and he had been reporting regularly for the station prior to that.

I know this could mean he that he might have been demoted to freelancer, but since he hasn't maintained active CBS social media (i.e. Facebook/Twitter), we probably won't know for sure if he was cut off/resigned/became freelance. 

 

EDIT: Refer to bc485's post below for clarification and where Codd has now gone.

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4 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

WFOR's Carey Codd is officially gone from the website. His last story was on June 5th, covering the protests, and he had been reporting regularly for the station prior to that.

I know this could mean he that he might have been demoted to freelancer, but since he hasn't maintained active CBS social media (i.e. Facebook/Twitter), we probably won't know for sure if he was cut off/resigned/became freelance. 

It seems as if Codd’s departure is unrelated to the CBS layoffs, unless he had advance notice that he was being laid off.  He is now a senior public information officer with the Broward Sheriff’s Office: https://www.sheriff.org/PIO/BSONews/Pages/BSO-WELCOMES-NEW-SENIOR-PIO-.aspx

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