Were Cost Cuts To Blame For Neeraj Khemlani Resigning From CBS News
August 14, 2023
On Sunday, Neeraj Khemlani announced in a memo to staff that he was leaving as Co-President of CBS News after two years on the job. “I’m so proud of what all of you have accomplished — the scores of journalistic wins, the superb storytelling, the creativity…that has put this division on a stronger path forward” Khemlani stated, according to The New York Post.
CBS News serves local, U.S. and global audiences via TV, cable, satellite, and digital platforms, offering news, news programs like 60 Minutes and Evening News, live sports broadcasts, TV serials like Star Trek, talk shows and comedy, soap operas and other entertainment.
CBS is part of Paramount, a New York based media company. In addition to the news network and TV stations, Paramount’s media brands include Paramount Pictures, which produced the Godfather movies; Comedy Central and Showtime cable channels; and Nickelodeon, a children’s channel.
In his memo to the CBS News staff, Khemlani said he is taking on a multi-year deal with CBS to develop content, including books, documentaries, and scripted series.
He still had one year left on his three-year contract, which raised questions about his exit. Last month, The New York Post reported that Khemlani was being monitored by a human resources executive after a slew of complaints for his alleged “bullying, rude” behavior, including in a budget meeting with Chief Financial Officer Stacey Benson in April. He was counselled on how to speak to employees “without sarcasm” while using “friendly body language,” several sources told the Post.
CBS – as well as Disney and other traditional media companies - are undertaking major cost cutting efforts to boost profits by tackling the negative impacts of company and industry issues as well as competition from social media.
In the case of CBS News, it continues to dominate TV programming on Sundays. However, its weekday morning and evening programs have for several years ranked third in audience ratings, behind NBC and ABC. Fox is the fourth major TV network in the U.S. Ratings determine what TV networks can charge for advertisements and how much they are paid by the cable operators who broadcast the programs.
CBS and other networks have also launched streaming services which compete intensely with each other for viewer subscription fees.
In addition, TV is losing viewers, and hence advertising revenues, to social media outlets. In 2022, about half of Americans said they get their news from social media websites, while only a third got it from TV; and just 5% from print.
Reflecting such weakening business economics, the market value of CBS’ parent Paramount is currently $10 billion, down from more than $40 billion in 2017.
Not surprising then that there was pressure on Khemlani – as there is on senior executives at the other TV networks - to stabilize revenues and boost profits.
Prior to joining CBS in 2021, Khemlani was deputy head at Hearst Newspapers, overseeing 3,000 employees who publish print and digital subscription products for 24 daily and 52 weekly publications including in Houston, San Francisco and San Antonio.
Earlier Khemlani was president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, responsible for cable network partnerships at ESPN and A+E Networks; digital video entertainment and music streaming businesses such as Complex Networks and Kobalt Music; video production through NorthSouth; and comics syndication and character licensing operations at King Features Syndicate.
In 2016, Verizon took a 24% equity stake in Awesomeness TV, alongside DreamWorks and Hearst at a $650 million valuation, and also agreed to create a short form mobile video service. Commenting on the deal, David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines told Commpro, “The credit goes to Neeraj Khemlani,” then co-president of Hearst’s entertainment division. In 2018, Awesomeness TV was sold to Viacom reportedly for between $25 million and well under $300 million, at least half its value two years earlier. Viacom is now part of Paramount, Khemlani’s employer.
Khemlani began his career at Hearst in 2009 as special assistant to the CEO for digital media, managing the promotion and coordination of digital content transformation. He then served as Hearst's chief creative officer.
Prior to Hearst, Khemlani was a vice president of Yahoo! News & Information. He managed the business of Yahoo! News, Tech, Weather and Education, original video productions and the editorial programming for Yahoo! Finance.
From 1998 to 2006, Khemlani was a producer for CBS News’ 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II. Prior to that, he was at ABC News, where he produced segments for Nightline, Good Morning America, Peter Jennings Reporting and ABC News Specials. He won a 2004 Emmy nomination for business reporting, a 2003 Emmy nomination for best interview, the 2002 Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting and a DuPont Award in 1995 for his participation in ABC News’ coverage of the war in Bosnia.
As a journalist and producer, Khemlani stories reportedly include gun sales in Pakistan’s northwest frontier; a three-part series with CBS news anchor Dan Rather on what Osama bin Laden and his associates were doing in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and in Sudan the summer before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.; and interviews with Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, musicians like the Grateful Dead and actors like Bollywood’s Aishwarya Rai.
Khemlani began his media career as a newspaper reporter, stringing for The New York Times and The Post-Standard in Syracuse, New York, while a student at Cornell University. He earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1993 and a bachelor’s in communications from Cornell in 1992, where he was the editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper The Cornell Daily Sun.
With family roots in India, Khemlani was born in Singapore and raised in New York. In 1988, he graduated from Stuyvesant High School, the top city-run school in New York.
Khemlani is married to Heather Cabot; they have twins, a son and a daughter. Cabot, the host of The New Chardonnay podcast, is a former anchor and correspondent for ABC News.
Apparently, Khemlani was brought in from outside CBS News with a major mandate to cut costs. In fact, in a note to staff about Khemlani’s exit, CBS Chief Executive George Cheeks stated that Khemlani “put new business plans in place to drive more revenue, which is essential in a challenging environment for all media companies,” The New York Post reported.
Perhaps Khemlani was unable to excel in office politics at CBS, compared to his career at Hearst, since his focus on cost cutting measures likely offended executives and staff. The office politics at CBS and other TV networks is likely as cutthroat as at any other corporations, as was portrayed in the 1976 Hollywood movie Network.
However, apparently the allegations against Khemlani had little or no merit. Otherwise, CBS would not have given him a new deal to develop content.
In his farewell memo to CBS News staff, Khemlani stated, according to The New York Post, that “(I am) looking forward to slipping my reporter’s notebook back into my pocket and heading out on a new adventure.”
FOR MORE UNIQUE STORIES ON INDIANS AND INDIA:
For access to stories each week email: gitimescontact@gmail.com
or follow via LINKEDIN or TWITTER or FACEBOOK
(c) All rights reserved. Copyright under United States Laws
