He'll start as the sole Moneyline anchorman May 14. Willow Bay , who has been the show's anchor, will be reassigned. Moneyline has lost about 25 percent of its audience since Dobbs quit in June 1999. The show has fallen behind its chief cable competitor, CNBC's Business Center . This year, Business Center has averaged 343,000 viewers a night, and Moneyline 293,000.
Advertisers pay a premium for the show's small but affluent audience.
When Dobbs left, Moneyline was CNN's most lucrative show. Staff will be cut through normal attrition and by offering buyout packages to employees who volunteer to leave, said Tim Stautberg, Scripps' vice president for communications and investor relations. Employees will not be laid off unless Scripps fails to meet its goal of reducing expenses at the newspapers, he said. All employees who have worked for the two newspapers for 10 or more years are eligible for the buyout, Stautberg said. The board is working on proposals for the state's tobacco settlement money.