Laurie Orlando, who oversaw recruiting and strategy at CBS News for nearly a decade, is leaving the Paramount Skydance operation. This is the first senior news executive to leave as the parent company overhauls its operations under an iconoclastic new editor-in-chief.
On Monday, Orlando sent a note to staff and friends saying he had decided to retire from the job he loves and the place he has always felt at home, according to three people familiar with the matter. Her last day is expected to be November 7th. A CBS News spokesperson confirmed Orlando’s departure.
Orlando’s announcement follows the departure earlier this month of Claudia Milne, who oversaw standards and practices at CBS News. The news department has lost two senior executives after it came under intense scrutiny after Paramount installed Bari Weiss, a digital entrepreneur who founded the conservative opinion site Free Press, as editor-in-chief and appointed a former Trump adviser as ombudsman.
It wasn’t immediately clear who would take over Orlando’s duties, but CBS has vice president of talent Angela Hunter, who reports directly to Orlando, who remains on staff. It’s also unclear whether Orlando left because of Weiss’ arrival. Paramount has introduced a new policy of five-day work weeks, prompting some employees to leave the company, and is implementing large-scale layoffs that began taking effect last week.
Still, the executive’s resignation is certain to increase scrutiny of CBS News. Mr. Weiss has been adept at capturing the attention of conservatives and political opinion enthusiasts, but he has no experience running a mainstream media organization. Weiss will report directly to Paramount’s new CEO, David Ellison, and CBS News President Tom Cybrowski is also working with her to implement the initiative.
CBS News has endured months of turmoil. Some of its programs, such as “60 Minutes” and “Face the Nation,” have been the subject of complaints from the Trump administration, and two different groups of Paramount executives undermined the prestige of those programs by paying President Trump a $16 million settlement in what many experts believe to be a flimsy lawsuit related to a “60 Minutes” interview with former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Two senior executives, former “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens and former CBS News and local station chief Wendy McMahon, left the company over disagreements over how the company handles these issues. Most recently, CBS News agreed to air only live interviews on “Face the Nation,” relinquishing the ability to edit out falsehoods or obstruction by guests.
Paramount drew further attention by appointing Kenneth Weinstein, a former adviser to President Trump, as an ombudsman tasked with overseeing CBS News’ reporting and adjudicating claims of bias. This decision could undermine the authority of the Bureau of Standards.
Orlando’s role has changed in recent months as CBS News has been under a series of new managers, but it appears none of them will stay on for more than a few years. Before returning to oversee talent at CBS News, she was sent to CBS’ local television stations to do the same job. Prior to joining CBS News, Orlando served as senior vice president of talent development and planning at ESPN and as a sports producer at MSG and Fox Sports.
