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CBS News Likely to Axe 100 Jobs

CBS News is planning for serious cuts this week, with as many as 100 jobs likely to be axed, including at the network’s 60 Minutes.

CBS’s Washington bureau could experience the sharpest cuts.

The cuts, coming as the network’s flagship morning and evening news programs continue to trail in terms of ratings, could equal as much as 7% of CBS News’s staff, people familiar with the situation say. CBS’s The Early Show and CBS Evening News with Katie Couric are both in third place in the ratings race.

But a news executive says the layoffs will be considerably lighter than the 100 jobs being reported, the Los Angeles Times writes.

The decision to cut staff is part of a push to make the news-gathering unit a bigger contributor to the bottom line of CBS Corp.

Editorial Staff to Be Cut

Another LA Times article reports that it is unlikely on-air correspondents or anchors will be cut. However, the layoffs are expected to hit editorial employees, as well as technicians and support staff. NBC and ABC have also been forced to cut their news divisions in recent years.

CBS Revenue to Jump $100 Million in Q4

CBS pres Les Moonves pointed out last month that the TV ad market is on the mend, but news programs are lagging behind prime time entertainment and sports in terms of recovery. The company will likely bring in $100 million more in Q4 09 than it did in the year-ago period, Moonves predicted in December. The Super Bowl is all but sold out, with spots running between $2.5 million and $2.8 million.

In the third quarter of 2009, CBS revenue equaled $3.35 billion, compared to $3.38 billion in Q3 08. For the first nine months of the year, revenues were $9.52 billion versus $10.42 billion for the first nine months of 2008.

The company will announce fourth quarter and full-year results on Feb. 18.

TV Revenues Leveling Off

The U.S. television industry saw revenues decline 22.4% in 2009, for lower-than-expected revenues of $15.6 billion, according to BIA/Kelsey.

The significant drop begins a leveling-off of television industry revenues, to the mid-$10 billion level - a level not seen since the mid-1990s - through at least 2013, the BIA/Kelsey report says.