The next potential leader of CBS News has built up a lot of experience running newsrooms for ABC.
Tom Cibrowski, a former senior ABC News executive who played a big role in moving “Good Morning America” past NBC’s “Today” in the ratings last decade, has emerged as a possible candidate to take a senior role at CBS News, according to two people familiar with the matter, just as the Paramount Global unit faces one of its most challenging periods. Cibrowski would report to Wendy McMahon, who oversees news, local stations and syndicated programing for CBS.
CBS News declined to make executives available for comment. Cibrowski could not be reached for immediate comment. There is no sign that CBS News and the executive have signed any agreement and there remains the possibility that a deal might not come to fruition.
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The executive would presumably fill the role previously inhabited by Adrienne Roark, a veteran local-news executive who had been assigned to oversee CBS national newsgathering as well as the operations of WCBS and WLNY in New York and WBZ and WSBK in Boston. Roark is exiting CBS to join Tegna as its chief content officer, reporting directly to CEO Mike Steib.
Cibrowski has run KGO, a San Francisco station owned by ABC, since 2018.
CBS News is under an array of pressures. The news division is at the center of of a case levied against Paramount Global by now-President Donald Trump, who claims editing of a “60 Minutes” interview of former Vice President Kamala Harris had an influence on the 2024 election. Executives at Paramount Global have mulled settling the case, because they fear the White House could slow down its deal to be acquired by David Ellison’s Skydance Media. The FCC recently asked for transcripts and video tied to the Harris interview. Meanwhile, Paramount, which has already made massive cost cuts, is expected to make more once the Skydance deal is consummated.
When McMahon announced Roark’s departure, she declined to name a successor, noting the company would “sit with this news” for some time.
Cibrowski would presumably have some say in the management of CBS News mainstays such as “60 Minutes,” “Sunday Morning” and “CBS Evening News.” CBS late late month unveiled a new format for the venerable “CBS Evening News” that relies on the anchor duo of Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson and hinges on enterprise reporting and features rather than summing up daily headlines in short segments, rather than a single anchor — as has been the format tradition for decades. Ratings have declined since DuBois and Dickerson replaced Norah O’Donnell on the program, but last week, there was a ray of hope: a surge in overall viewership.