CBS Announces Job Cuts

CBS News on Wednesday carried out a cost-cutting plan that eliminates about 100 jobs and adds more flexibility to reporting teams, another sign of retrenchment in the broadcasting industry.

The cuts were made without firing on-air personnel or closing bureaus, although CBS News facilities in Dallas, Miami, Tel Aviv and Moscow will be downsized.

CBS News is consolidating its management in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, London and Tokyo. It will also cut management within New York's technical staff and expand the duties of many producers.

Instead of being assigned to individual CBS shows, many production teams will now do work for several different broadcasts, CBS News President Andrew Heyward said.

"We've taken weeks and involved a lot of people to make sure we have a plan that retains our competitiveness and maintains our ability to do distinctive, original reporting," he said. "We have really left our newsgathering ability as close to intact as we can under these circumstances."

CBS's plan does not involve consolidation with CNN, although both organizations have acknowledged they have talked about sharing resources and haven't ruled out some sort of merger.

Heyward said there are no talks going on now with CNN. While the idea of sharing resources is intriguing, "there are also significant obstacles to making things work," he said.

Broadcast networks have struggled financially over the past year, with declining viewership cutting into their advertising revenue at the same time programming costs have sharply gone up.

ABC and NBC's news divisions have also cut jobs. ABC has closed a bureau in San Francisco, consolidated space overseas with the BBC and also talked informally with CNN about ways of working together. NBC has closed its bureau in Johannesburg, South Africa, and made cuts in Denver and Tokyo.

Written By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer