CBS NEWS SLASHER

Boss’ bro works for cost adviser

CBS News has hired a consulting firm to draw up plans for a corporate slimdown where an executive is the brother of the network’s cost-slashing co-president, The Post has learned.

As previously reported by The Post, Neeraj Khemlani joined CBS as co-president last May and quickly signaled he planned to cut expenses across the third-place news network, which is owned by media giant ViacomCBS. Almost immediately after Khemlani took the reins, executives from the firm FTI Consulting were brought in, employees told The Post.

FTI doesn’t appear to have significant experience in media and broadcast consulting, but it got the plum job.

“A month or two after Neeraj started, we got e-mails,” a CBS employee said. The source added that upward of 100 consultants were soon organizing Zoom meetings across CBS’ broadcast, digital and local news divisions and asking for presentations on their departments.

Many layoffs

“They were looking for ways to create efficiencies in the news organization,” the source said, adding that it ultimately translated to layoffs and consolidation for many.

“Everyone knows Neeraj is an accountant masquerading as a journalist,” another insider told The Post. “It’s no surprise his brother is a consultant he hired to cut costs — his sole job is to slim everything down for sale.”

Sources inside CBS told The Post they were questioning the hire of FTI because it is not known for media consulting like rivals McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group. According to its Web site, FTI hasn’t had any major TV clients recently outside of CBS.

FTI’s top media consultant Luke Schaeffer, who has worked on the CBS account, boasts of non-TV clients like the digital publication Refinery29 when it merged with Vice Media, and radio giant Entercom when it merged with CBS Radio.

Not on CBS team

A source close to CBS said that Khemlani’s brother, Sanjeev, senior managing director at FTI who specializes in restructuring, did not work on the CBS account.

FTI declined to comment specifically on CBS or any other clients, adding: “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on, confirm or deny client engagements or reports of client engagements.”

Large companies like CBS typically have an approval process for outside contractors that includes conflict disclosures, as well as an internal department that runs a bidding process for the best pitch, said Douglas Chia, president of Soundboard Governance.

It could be that FTI gave a “compelling business pitch like cost,” Chia said.

CBS did not comment on whether Khemlani disclosed to CBS that the Washington, DC-based FTI employed his brother, or if there was a formal bidding process.

A CBS rep did say that “CBS’ relationship with FTI predates current leadership.”