CBS Reportedly Faces Fund Cut of $50 Million

NEW YORK —  CBS News is facing a $50-million budget cut that is likely to result in substantial changes in programming and worldwide news gathering operations, it was reported today.

The drastic budget slashing has been requested by the head of CBS Inc., Lawrence Tisch, the company’s largest shareholder who became chief executive officer in a corporate power struggle last fall, the New York Times said.

The request, the report said, has promoted a drastic reassessment of the worldwide CBS News operation.

One network official said it could bring dismissals and cutbacks at the news division that would make the major cutbacks of last year--in which more than 100 CBS News employees were dismissed--look like “chicken feed,” the newspaper reported.

$300-Million Budget

Informed sources told the newspaper that reductions could be even higher than $50 million. The money would be slashed from the news operation’s annual $300-million budget and could result in both layoffs and changes in the network’s news gathering process, the sources said.

George Schweitzer, CBS Broadcast Group’s chief spokesman, said today that Tisch strongly denied the story. CBS is continuing to examine the budgets of every division because of a general shrinking of revenues, but no figures for cutbacks have been established, Schweitzer said.