Tony Dokoupil suddenly has fewer people helping him produce each day’s broadcast of “CBS Evening News.”
A significant chunk of the production team behind “CBS Evening News” has opted to take buyouts that were offered in late January, according to three people familiar with the matter, the latest sign of ambivalence by journalists at CBS News regarding the plans of the unit’s leader, Bari Weiss. She recently articulated a new vision that would place more focus by the Paramount Skydance operation on streaming video and stories that are “differentiated, that are things you can’t get anywhere else.”
Approximately 11 members out of a production staff of about 40 have opted to leave, according to these people. Some of the depatures come from among the youngest members of the CBS News staff, two of these people say, a dynamic that has raised concern about the ability to bring new perspectives to familiar routines. At least two employees taking the buyouts, however, were veteran producers, who played significant roles in getting “CBS Evening News” out each weekday.
CBS News declined to make executives available for comment.
The exodus puts a new spotlight on CBS News under Weiss, whose experience is largely tied to opinion writing and not the ins and outs of newsgathering. Weiss’ lack of knowledge has resulted in several errors since her arrival in October, after Paramount bought her conservative-opinion site The Free Press for $150 million. There have been entanglements with “60 Minutes”; exits by senior executives; and a rough start for Dokoupil’s new tenure at “CBS Evening News” following comments he made online about his intentions for his new job.
One senior producer, Javier Guzman, left “Evening News” in January, with people familiar with the matter saying he had issues with the new direction of the program. Several of the producers leaving were previously tied to an uptick in production of investigative segments that were aired under the rubric “Eye on America.” But that has changed as part of Dokoupil’s tenure.
There are still sings of a stressed out staff. On Wednesday, a letter from one producer, Alicia Hastey, described a scenario under which stories might be judged by Weiss’ take on a certain topic, rather than the facts that are gathered. “Stories may instead by evaluated not just on their journalistic merit, but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations — a dynamic that pressures producers and reporters to self-censor or avoid challenging narratives that might trigger backlash or unfavorable headlines.” Hastey is among the staffers leaving the program.
Hastey could not be reached for immediate comment on the note she wrote.
During a January town hall, Weiss restated a mantra she has used since her arrival at CBS News — mainstream media is no longer trusted — and stressed that CBS News had to be a place where viewers could come to hear all sides of a debate, even if doing so made them uncomfortable. Independent Americans “want to equip themselves with all the facts,” she said at the time, “and are curious to hear what is actually going on, even if it offends their sensibilities.”
There are good reasons to shake up “CBS Evening News.” The program has long run in third place behind ABC’s “World News Tonight” and NBC’s “NBC Nightly News.” Before Dokoupil, CBS News experimented with a two-anchor format that relied on Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson, as well as an emphasis on enterprise and feature reporting. Viewers did not embrace the concept, and ratings dropped.
For the four days ended December 5, “CBS Evening News” notched an average of nearly 4.57 million viewers, according to data from Nielsen, compared with 8.98 million for ABC’s “World News Tonight” and about 7.23 million for “NBC Nightly News.” All three networks did not submit their Friday newscasts for consideration owing to the start of the Winter Olympics. And while both the NBC and ABC programs captured an average of 1.1 million or more people between 25 and 54 — the audience coveted by advertisers in news programming – CBS’s show only lured 579,000 — a 7% downturn from the previous week and a decline of 14% from the year-earlier period.
Some of the staffers leaving are said to have become “a bit intransigent,” according to one of the people familiar with the matter, largely because they were tied to production of features, which are being scaled back. Older producers who are leaving are doing so, this person says, because the exit offer is a generous one.