CBS News president to step down as Paramount eyes cost cuts amid merger

By Dawn Chmielewski

(Reuters) - CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews will step down from her role amid a shakeup at media giant Paramount Global, which is set to merge with Skydance Media, according to internal memos seen by Reuters.

Ciprian-Matthews, who was named as the president of Paramount's news unit in August last year, will serve as a senior adviser for coverage of the 2024 presidential election until her departure from the company, the memos said.

The departure underscores a period of change at the company, which had said it will continue reducing the size of its workforce until its merger with Skydance Media closes, Reuters reported earlier in July.

"We all know our industry and company are going through a transformation and a number of short- and long-term decisions need to be made," Ciprian-Matthews said in a company-wide email seen by Reuters.

As a part of the merger deal, debt-laden Paramount is aiming for about $2 billion in annual savings, with restructuring and integration costs set to reach $1.6 billion.

Ciprian-Matthews joined CBS News in 1993, prior to which she was the managing editor of CNN's New York bureau.

A new president of CBS News was not immediately named.

(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles and Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)