CBS News is in hiring mode for the new CBS News digital news channel and is looking at a launch in October, TVNewser has learned.
The channel is being championed by CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves, with CBS News president David Rhodes heading up the effort. Rhodes is a veteran of the cable game, having worked the early years at Fox News Channel and later as head of U.S. TV for Bloomberg.
We’re told Mosheh Oinounou, who worked with Rhodes at both Fox News and Bloomberg and Nancy Lane, head of editorial for CBSNews.com, are doing most of the candidate interviews. Lane is also a cable news veteran, having worked at CNN for 29 years. Oinounou has been with CBS since 2011. CBS is looking to have a staff of around 60 people for the launch, including interactive, technical and editorial, many plucked from current cable TV news ranks.
In May, Moonves told Bloomberg’s Trish Regan, “Wouldn’t it be a good idea to do a 24-hour digital channel taking all the resources that CBS News has…all over the world. And there is so much information that we get every day that doesn’t fit into a 22-minute newscast at 6:30, or ‘CBS This Morning.’ So we can do that.”