Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
WBZ employees offered buyouts, prominent reporters leave
Longtime reporters Mallika Marshall and Beth Germano are departing WBZ-TV, according to reports.
A number of employees at WBZ-TV are reportedly being offered buyouts, while two high-profile reporters are departing the station.
News broke Thursday that Dr. Mallika Marshall, an Emmy-winning health reporter who spent more than two decades at the station, had been laid off. Marshall is also a practicing physician who works at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, according to her biography on the CBS News website. She has been a contributor for a number of CBS programs over the years.
“It has been one of the greatest honors of my life to provide reliable and credible health advice to the residents of the Commonwealth, New England, and all over the world for more than 25 years, especially now when it’s needed the most!” Marshall told The Boston Globe. “I’m certainly looking forward to what the next chapter brings.”
Advertisement:
Marshall and WBZ-TV did not respond to requests for comment.
On Friday, the Globe reported that WBZ reporter Beth Germano is planning to retire in August. Germano has been with the station since 1996, covering a wide variety of topics across New England. She received a New England Emmy Award for her help with WBZ’s coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“I’ve been thinking about it on and off for a while,” Germano told the Globe. “Life is a series of chapters, and I think it’s time for me to start a new chapter.”
Advertisement:
A representative for IBEW Local 1228 confirmed to the paper this week that WBZ is offering buyouts to six photographers and three people in the engineering department. There is an Aug. 15 deadline for workers to accept the buyout. Those who do will depart in September.
The union did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission cleared the way for Paramount and Skydance Media to complete its long-gestating, $8 billion merger. Paramount is the parent company of CBS, which owns WBZ.
“I gotta believe it has something to do with the merger,” Fletcher Fischer, the business manager and financial secretary for the union, told the Globe.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com