Variety’s Michael Learmonth reports: “Seventeen Dateline employees were issued pink slips Friday… 10 Dateline staffers in New York were laid off, five in Washington, D.C., one in Chicago and another in Burbank… That number does not include buyouts, which have been offered to dozens of employees across the news division.”

Also: “Several cameramen in the D.C. bureau were said to be considering buyouts, which would pay the rough equivalent of three years salary and allow them to return as freelance employees after six months.”

A tipster says David Corvo was in DC laying people off today. A network insider says the number of “volunteers” choosing buyout packages exceeds the number of layoffs…