Longtime anchor Jeff Glor and three correspondents are leaving CBS News because of costs

Jeff Glor, a longtime anchor at CBS News, is leaving the network along with three other veteran correspondents in the latest round of layoffs at parent company Paramount Global.

Glor has co-hosted “CBS Saturday Morning” since 2019. Prior to joining the show, Glor served as anchor of “CBS Evening News” for 18 months. He was preceded by Norah O'Donnell.

The network's news division is also parting ways with three veteran correspondents, including Ben Tracy, who covered environmental issues from Los Angeles; Anna Werner, senior consumer investigations correspondent; and Chicago-based reporter Roxana Saberi, according to people briefed on the cuts.

The staff cuts also affect CBS stations. Among those who will be leaving is morning news anchor Marci Gonzalez of Los Angeles outlet KCAL.

A representative for CBS News declined to comment.

CBS Saturday Morning co-host Jeff Glor. Photos: Michele Crowe/CBS ©2021 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved

(Michele Crowe/Michele Crowe/CBS)

The cuts are part of broader cuts at Paramount Global, which announced in June that it would cut 15% of its U.S. workforce, or 2,000 employees. The layoffs made this week represent the second phase of planned layoffs, which are now 90% complete, according to a memo sent to employees Tuesday.

The layoffs are part of an effort to save $500 million in annual costs ahead of the company's upcoming merger.

Tech scion David Ellison's Skydance Media, along with RedBird Capital Partners and Ellison's father Larry, co-founder of software giant Oracle Corp., is poised to take control of Paramount in the first half of next year if regulators approve the deal.

Prior to the merger agreement, CBS merged its network news division with its own television stations under Wendy McMahon. CBS News is now expected to work more closely with its local television stations.

Glor had been with CBS News since 2007. His reporting on major issues appeared frequently on the air and he was groomed for the evening newsroom, a job that was short-lived. His stint on “CBS Saturday Morning” alongside co-hosts Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson propelled the show to its best ratings position over ABC and NBC since 2003.

Werner joined CBS News in 2011 and provided regular reports on hospital, pharmaceutical and insurance practices, defective products, web-based and other financial fraud, illegal dietary supplements and how artificial intelligence affects consumers. Her investigative work has received numerous awards for broadcast journalism, including a George R. Polk Award earlier this year.

Saberi worked as a foreign correspondent in the network's London bureau for five years before moving to Chicago. In 2009, while working as a reporter abroad, she was imprisoned in Iran for 100 days on a false accusation of spying for the CIA.

Tracy joined CBS News in 2008 and has focused on climate change in recent years. He has reported internationally and served as a White House correspondent during the Trump administration.