Paula Reid, CNN’s chief legal affairs correspondent, has rejected a contract extension and will leave the network this summer rather than continue under the uncertain future awaiting it once Paramount Skydance completes its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Trump Department of Justice approved the merger earlier this month, finding no threat to competition. However, Britain’s culture minister declared this week that she may intervene in the global deal on “public interest grounds,” presenting a potential hurdle to securing the deal by September.
Reid, 43, is expected to join MS NOW, a news outlet under President Rebecca Kutler that has sharpened its focus on enterprise and hard-news reporting. CNN executives made a concerted effort to retain her, but she informed management she would not extend her contract when it expires this summer.
A Broader Talent Exodus Taking Shape
Reid is the first major full-time CNN journalist to exit specifically over concerns about the network’s trajectory once the Paramount Skydance deal closes. Technology journalist Kara Swisher, a CNN contributor, has said repeatedly she will stop working with the network once the merger is complete. Other journalists are quietly weighing their options, according to people familiar with internal deliberations.
Industry analysts see a structural dynamic at play that goes beyond any single departure. Blair Levin, an analyst at New Street Research, said media companies facing pressure to accommodate political power will see talent leave for organizations that resist such alignment.
Concerns About Editorial Independence
In candid conversations with CNN executives, Reid privately raised her discomfort with the looming merger and the cloud it has cast over the network’s editorial future. Wanting to keep her, those executives found themselves in an impossible position: they could not offer meaningful assurances about how CNN would operate post-merger because they themselves had not been told what the leadership structure would look like. Faced with that answer, Reid chose the exit.
Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison has moved aggressively to reshape CBS News since taking control of Paramount, installing Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News. The move unleashed a wave of high-profile departures and firings at “60 Minutes,” a program with a long and prestigious history in broadcast television. Scott Pelley, who had anchored for years, was dismissed following a public confrontation with Weiss, while veteran correspondent Anderson Cooper also departed the show. Complaints about pandering to President Donald Trump and his administration resulted in an exodus at the program.
Discussions are now reportedly underway about whether Weiss could take on an oversight role spanning both CBS News and CNN after the deal closes — a prospect that journalists at CNN have watched with deep wariness.
Ellison, for his part, has insisted that editorial standards will not erode under his ownership. In a May interview with CNBC, he said the independence essential to quality journalism would remain intact at both CBS and CNN. Whether that pledge holds once the merger closes — and whoever takes the helm of CNN’s newsroom — remains an open question for the reporters still there.
A Decorated Career Covering Trump and the Justice Department
Reid joined CNN in 2021 after over 10 years at CBS News, where she served as the network’s White House correspondent and covered the Justice Department. At CNN, she became a fixture on the air, logging extensive coverage of the Supreme Court and federal and state investigations into senior officials, including President Donald Trump. She was part of the reporting team that first revealed Trump had been recorded on audio talking about a classified document he kept after his first presidency ended.
During pandemic briefings in 2020, Trump singled her out, criticizing her questions and demeanor as displaying a troubling attitude. Trump also repeatedly attacked CNN as an institution, and Reid’s White House tenure at CBS was marked by regular clashes with him over border policies and the administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A spokesman for MS NOW declined to address Reid’s anticipated move directly but offered this: “As everyone in Washington knows, Paula Reid is an exceptional reporter, and any news organization would be fortunate to showcase her journalism.”