The cost-cutting CBS News boss who clashed with Norah O’Donnell is facing an internal human-resources review over complaints about his sharp-elbowed management style. CBS News co-president Neeraj Khemlani — who was accused of being “rude” and “micromanaging” as he pared jobs and paychecks including those of CBS Evening News anchor O’Donnell — lately has been slapped with a spate of human resources complaints — the latest by an HR executive, sources say.
Brian Williams doesn’t want to anchor the CBS Evening News. Just years ago, in 2015, the notion that Williams would be rebuffing an offer to helm one of the big three nightly news programs would have been unfathomable. But the tide has since turned. CBS News President and Co-Head Neeraj Khemlani recently tried to recruit Williams for the network’s flagship evening news program. Two sources said that Khemlani, who assumed his role less than a year ago and has been working to poach talent, tried at least twice. But it was to no avail.
A tough, new boss at CBS News is slashing costs in a bid to revamp the struggling network — and he’s also provoking complaints from employees, with some grumbling that he is “rude” and “micromanaging.” Rank-and-file at the third-place network gripe that co-president Neeraj Khemlani — a former Hearst executive who along with ex-ABC executive Wendy McMahon took the reins in May — is demanding more work even as he axes resources, with some raising concerns that ruthless bean counting at CBS News is “cutting it to the bone.”
CBS News Chief Khemlani On The ‘CBS Mornings’ Rebrand
Neeraj Khemlani talks about CBS Mornings and the reimagined CBS morning show franchise, as well as his vision for CBS News, and working with Wendy McMahon.
Exclusives
The two executives named to head a newly fashioned division that combines the CBS local stations with CBS News and the team that manages the CBSN live-streaming news service offered their early vision for how the operation will function. Both Wendy McMahon and Neeraj Khemlani suggested in their first outreach to staffers that the company’s ultimate product will combine the national and overseas heft of CBS News with feet on the ground in various cities where CBS operates.
Neeraj Khemlani, a former journalist who has worked at Hearst Newspapers for 12 years, and Wendy McMahon, who was head of ABC-owned stations, will be co-presidents of CBS News, the network said on Thursday. The move comes a day after CBS News President Susan Zirinsky told staff members that she was stepping down after two years on the job.
