CBS News employees are bracing for a significant round of layoffs that will hit the news division next week, according to multiple sources. The budget tightening is expected to affect every newscast, including "60 Minutes," the network's crown jewel, although that show will likely suffer minimal losses.
Publishers and broadcasters have always called on freelance journalists. But a generation ago, if they used material from another organization, it was usually limited to a handful of large, well-known and respected ones like The Associated Press or Reuters. With established newsrooms shrinking, a raft of smaller news outlets have cropped up in the last few years, selling or simply giving news reports to the traditional media - groups like ProPublica, Global Post, Politico and Kaiser Health News.